Project 5776
by ChickenDeNoodleyNoodleIII
Summary: Project JINCHUURIKI… a plot by the government to make superhuman superweapons. Created by the wicked Akatsuki Organization, a private weapons company with an agenda of its own, Project 5776, codenamed KYUUBI, escapes into the outside world.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:  
Project JINCHUURIKI… a plot by the government to make super-human super-weapons. Created by the wicked Akatsuki Organization, a private weapons company with an agenda of its own, Project 5776, codenamed KYUUBI, escapes into the outside world. Can a pink haired girl, along with a couple of friends and 5776's amazing abilities, stop this evil menace? Or will the Akatsuki achieve its goals and conquer the known world…

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**Good day and greetings to you all! It is the return of Chicken and another of his youthful stories!**

**This story does start out violent and actiony, then becomes perverted, then romantic, then angsty, then actiony again, and not in that order!**

**This story, as you read in the summary, is about Project 5776, also known as the KYUUBI Project, Project JINCHUURIKI, which is the mother project, and the evil Akatsuki Organization (guess who). This'll include gigantic fights between the demon vessels, and a growing romance between Naruto and Sakura as they attempt to save the world.**

**Please don't skip the beginning, you'll miss a lot of the story.**

**And also, I'm in sore need of a beta. I have no true schedule, and you'd be getting the chapters whenever I finish them, which could be days to months in between. This would be a beta for all my stories and not just one.**

**If you don't need a steady schedule (because if you do, you're screwed), please PM or email me. I'll have you complete a task or two to see if you are worthy, pawn.**

**ON WIT' DA FANFIC, G!!

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_Chapter 1:  
Project 5776, Codename KYUUBI_

_BOOM!!_

The air-lock doors exploded, sending shrapnel outwards. A flash of yellow and orange flew through the door, followed by smoke and gunshots.

"Dammit! He got through… Tsume, do you have anything on the cams?" Someone screamed through the fog.

"Negative… wait, he's going down Corridor 12… damn, he's fast." Came Tsume's voice over the earpiece.

"Dammit," The commander swore again, reloading his rifle. "Platoon Tango, haul ass to Bravo Quadrant, Sector Zulu!" He spat into his mouthpiece, signaling for the men following him to hurry.

"Corridors 13 and 14, sir?" crackled the earpiece as one of the men of Tango spoke to him.

"Damn straight, we have to cut it off before it reaches the entrance!" He shouted into the mic, sprinting down the hallway as soon as the last man was through.

"Sir, this is Lieutenant Havok of Tango… license to kill?" Havok's voice went through the receiver statically.

"Negative. Orders are to knock out and capture it. If that is impossible… then yes, we have license. It cannot get out of the facility," He responded, rounding the corner into a corridor where a big yellow "11" was painted onto the walls. Damn, this was taking forever!

"Sir, I've lost the cams," a female's voice came through the earpiece. It sounded concerned.

"What? You've lost him?" The commander yelled into his mic.

"No, sir. I've lost all visual of the entire compound… everything's…" The rest was white noise as a burst of heat came down the hallway.

---SECTIONBREAK---

"Commander? Commander? Do you copy?" Havok shouted into his walkie-talkie. He had been yelling into it for the past two minutes, and the commander had yet to respond.

"Lieutenant, he's turned into the dead-end right now, near the Charlie-Bravo quadrant junction. Orders?" the man behind him whispered.

"Rack your weapons, and draw non-lethals. Orders are to tranq and net." He whispered back, turning the corner into Corridor 13, Hallway 6. A dead end, if there ever was one.

_And it will be if we can't get this thing_, Havok thought, drawing his tranquilizer pistol. He checked the clip. It had six darts in it. He pushed it back in with a _click_, and pulled back the slide, loading one of the darts into the chamber. It was still two hundred yards down the hallway, he thought to himself grimly.

---SECTIONBREAK---

The commander stumbled upon a blood-splattered and charred section of the corridor. He heard one of the men behind him lose his lunch on the paneled-floor. He sucked in his breath, trying to settle his own stomach. The stench of death and burnt flesh almost made him lose his composure.

"Spread out. I want to find what happened, and if possible, I.D this blood." He spoke back to the six men behind him, one kneeling next to the man on the ground vomiting. He looked up and nodded, the rest of the group following his lead. He stood, and walked ahead, leaving the sick one to lay there and regain himself.

"Uh, sir? I think I've I.D'd the blood," one of the soldiers said, holding up a shredded flak jacket and a dented helmet.

"Dammit… Can you I.D the _owner_ of the blood?" The commander was beginning to feel something grow in the pit of his stomach.

"Sir? Oh god… uh… do you know… (gulp)… who this is?" a voice behind him asked. It sounded like whoever it was was going to be sick.

"Who?" The commander turned around, and nearly cried out. The soldier was holding on to a disembodied head!

"Oh… shit…" The commander stumbled over his words. He was trying to identify the face, but he couldn't. He felt nauseous, and the face was contorted in pain and fear, as if it had been attacked by something monstrous or terrifying.

"Ah… damn it… it's… ugh… Simmons. Second Lieutenant Simmons, Platoon Delta." He stumbled out. That feeling in his stomach was turning from nausea to rage. "Any survivors?"

"Uh… negative, sir. I think that whatever it was took out the entire platoon. There are several bodies, but… they're kinda… burnt. To a crisp." The rage bubbled over.

"Hand me your walkie-talkie." The commander said, sticking out his hand. The soldier set down the head respectfully, then fumbled with his belt for a second, finally removing it from it's belt clip. He handed it over to the commander shakily. The commander took it from his hands, impatient and angry.

"Goddammit, Havok? Do you read me?" He shouted into the radio.

"Loud and clear, sir. Good to hear your voice." Havok's voice crackled through.

"Orders have changed, Havok. It's search and destroy from here on out." The commander said grimly, a single thought running through his head. _That monster will not kill anymore of my men!_

"Uh… sir? We may have a situation here…" Havok replied, his voice finally coming through clearly.

---SECTIONBREAK---

"I won't let you hurt him!" Umino Iruka shouted at the soldiers, who had their guns pointed at him. Iruka was shakily pointing a pistol of his own back at them in a two-handed stance. He had drawn it from his long white lab coat.

"Sir, step away from it. It's dangerous!" a soldier shouted at the scientist. He was talking about the curled up form lying on the ground behind Iruka, which looked absolutely harmless as it whimpered. It's long blonde hair was spread out on the floor, creating a mat for it. It's large blue eyes were sparkling with fear as it peak around Iruka's legs.

"I won't let you hurt Naruto!" Iruka shouted, his stance firming, as did his resolve. He would not let them hurt him! He was special!

"Sir, this is the last time! Please step away from the monster, so we can knock it out!" The soldier shouted. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned his head to see who it was.

The look of hate on Lieutenant Havok's face was enough to almost make him believe that the lieutenant was a bigger threat than the thing that was lying behind Iruka.

"Orders have changed." Havok said simply, un-slinging his shotgun from his shoulder. "We're to kill that freak monster on sight."

"Why?"

Havok leaned over and whispered into the soldier's ear, telling him what had happened to Delta. Tears began to stream down the soldier's face, anger and rage welling up within him. He un-slung his assault rifle and chambered a shell.

"That fucker killed my brother! Step away from that god damn monster now!" The soldier cried, whipping around and shouldering the weapon, aiming down the sights to target the monster's head. It tensed, getting into a crouched position, sensing bloodlust and hostility. Iruka pointed his gun at the soldier.

"No! I won't let you hurt Naruto!" He screamed, his hands tightening on the gun. "I won't let you kill my son!" Naruto's eye's widened, he started to stand up.

"Fuck!" _Bam! Bam! Bam Bam! Bam!_

Iruka's pistol clattered to the floor, the soldier's cry still ringing in the air. It bounced once, then slid a few feet away. The hammer hadn't been pulled back. Iruka followed his gun, falling lifelessly to the floor. Naruto was covered in a slight spray of blood, the bullet holes from the shots that had gone through Iruka, then through him, already beginning to heal. He stared in horror at Iruka's body on the floor before him. He fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he shook Iruka's inert form.

"Daddy!" He sobbed, shaking Iruka. "Daddy, wake up!" He hugged Iruka's body to him, getting his blood all over him. Naruto's tears began to mix with the blood.

"Daddy! Come on Daddy! Wake up! Please wake up!" He buried his face into Iruka's back, sobbing into it.

The soldier, who was prepared to unload his entire clip into the monster, stopped. Monsters didn't cry… did they? Monsters didn't say 'Daddy'… Monsters killed people senselessly, not sob helplessly when you killed their parent figure… didn't they? Dammit! He was so confused.

"Sir… I can't shoot him. He's just a kid!" A different soldier shouted, looking at the sight before him. He didn't look like a monster. He looked just like a kid who had watched his dad get shot.

"Shoot him, dammit! He killed the entire Delta platoon!" Havok screamed, shoving the soldier out of the way and bringing his shotgun up to bear. He pumped a shell into the chamber, and fired.

Naruto flew back, hitting the wall. The side of his stomach was a bloody mess, a large chunk of flesh and organs missing, blown away by the blast.

The entire unit stared at Havok. The Lieutenant had gone crazy! The one soldier whose brother had been with Delta was brought to his senses by the gunfire. He stared at Havok like he had never seen him before.

---SECTIONBREAK---

He had killed the monster! He had killed what had slaughtered Delta platoon! These thoughts were running through Havok's head as he watched the eyes of the monster glaze over. He turned to face his squadron, who were all staring at him.

"What?" He asked incredulously. He had just killed a monster! They should be celebrating!

"You… you killed a kid." One of them said. Damn it! They looked like a bunch of deer stuck in the headlights of a truck.

"A kid? You mean that monster?" He said, almost hysterically. What was the matter with them? "You're calling him a kid? Didn't you see him heal from those bullet wounds? Didn't you hear what he did to Delta? He slaughtered them! How can you call this… this… this _thing_ a simple child?"

"You killed Daddy." Havok stopped. A chill ran down his spine. The men were all looking over his shoulder in fear at what was behind him. He felt a wave of heat brush up against his back.

"**You hurt Daddy!**" It cried again, sounding like a bark. He heard a tearing sound, like something was ripping cloth. Havok began to turn around, fearing what he would see. He never made it.

Havok's head was separated from his shoulders by a clawed hand. A crimson flash darted forward, ripping the soldier (who shot Iruka)'s throat out, leaving him to join his brother. The other men began to run.

It roared, and they felt the heat of flames against their backs. The two at the back of the group cried out in their final agony as they were consumed by the speeding inferno. Three more were swallowed by the flames before they hit the end of the hallway, turning left in the three-way junction of the corridor, just barely avoiding the flames, melting the rubber on their combat boots as it shot out of the hallway and sprayed violently against the steel walls, melting them into slag and leaving only the crumbling concrete shoring behind. Of the seven that ran, only two survived the burning hell that had been that hallway.

---SECTIONBREAK---

It stopped, the flames cooling down as it watched the white-hot, dripping, molten metal hallway in front of it collapse, its nine tails swishing in glee. Its crimson eyes flashed as it contemplated the headless form of Havok lying in front of him. He hadn't burned it. It had been behind him.

It cried, stabbing its hand through Havok's chest cavity, ripping out the heart. It looked at it greedily, considering what it was holding. It consumed the heart hungrily. Then, wiping its maw, it looked at Iruka.

Whimpering, it picked up Iruka's body, cradling him against its body. It whimpered again, nuzzling its father's face, smearing a little blood that he had missed on Iruka's now-peaceful features. The crimson red eyes slowly began to fade to blue as it burst through the wall of the dead-end hallway. The wall happened to lead directly outside, as if the building was taking pity on the poor thing. It howled in grief one last time, disappearing through the hole, carrying Iruka's lifeless body with it, disappearing into alleyways of the Akatsuki Corp. Special Weapons Facility complex. It finally found its way outside of the complex, and into the surrounding city.

A pair of spinning red eyes followed its progress.

-----S-t-o-r-y--B-r-e-a-k--N-e-w--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--S-t-a-r-t-i-n-g-----

"Mitsurugi Miaka! Come back here!" Haruno Sakura shouted, chasing after the little girl through the empty sidewalks of the city's abandoned sector, the Konoha equivalent of the darker parts of The Bronx.

"You gots ta catch me!" the eight year old yelled back, sprinting as fast as she could to get away from her older cousin.

"You know it's dangerous! Get back her young lady!" She gave one giant burst of speed, closing the ten-foot gap in a few seconds. She wrapped her arms around the little girl and picked her up, still running. She slowed down, and began to spin around, swinging Miaka all over the place.

"Wheeee!" Miaka giggled, kicking her feet. Sakura eventually became tired, and sat down on a patch of grass between two buildings with a _thump!_

"Do it again, Nee-chan! Do it again!" Miaka said, clapping her hands. Sakura however, was not nearly as energetic as the little girl. "Spin me!"

"No Miaka. I'm all spinned out." She panted, wiping sweat off of her wide brow. She sat there breathing heavily for a few more minutes, occasionally tickling the little girl when she began to wiggle. She then sat Miaka down, and stood up, brushing off her skirt, which now had grass and dirt stains on it. Then Sakura grew serious

"I told you not to leave the park Miaka." She said sternly, glaring at the eight year old. The little girl squirmed uncomfortably under her older cousin's gaze.

"But it was so _boring_ without big brother Tetsu there!" She complained. She almost never went anywhere without her older brother, who was more protective of the little girl than a mother hen.

"That's no excuse! Now what do you say for being so rude?"

"Tetsu's more fun 'n you!" Sakura hung her head and sighed. Miaka could be such a pain at times. She was about to scold the girl again, when she heard Miaka "eep!". Sakura looked up, expecting to find that Miaka had stepped on a bug. Instead, she had cold steel press against her neck, and a greasy hand grab her hair, yanking it back and exposing her neck more.

"Now now, girly. You's gonna cooperate wit us, o' yo' little friend there is gonna be in some big trouble!" A slightly squeaky, but mean, voice said from next to her ear. She could feel the man's hot breath blowing across the side of her face.

_Ewww! He smells like rotting garbage and stale sake!_, She thought to her self scrunch her eyes, trying to block out the smell.

"H-how can I help y-you?" She stuttered, both in fear and trying to stop herself from gagging. The man snickered, and let go of her hair. Sakura took that as a good sign, hoping he would release her. Maybe they wanted directions?

"Oh, I bet you know how you can help us…" He trailed off, snickering as his hand trailed down her body, landing on her rump. He gave it a tight squeeze, and smacked it. Sakura jumped, screaming in the process. He was going to rape her!

His arm wrapped around her neck so she didn't accidentally slit her throat. He tightened his grip, pulling her in so that he had her almost in a choke hold.

"Now, don't do that again, get it? Don't wancha to hurt yo'self, or your friend there, now do we?"

Sakura finally saw Miaka. She was lying on the ground, with a large bump on her head. Fortunately, she was breathing.

Sakura nearly jumped again when she felt his hand slide under her skirt, and onto her spandex under-shorts, but couldn't because of the man's tight grip. He pinched her inner thigh, chuckling again.

"Ther' ain't nobody around, boss, I checked." A deep rumbling, bumbling voice came from behind them.

"That's good, Willie, now come help me here, I need you to hold her still." The squeaky man said, snickering as his hand left her skirt and headed upwards towards her chest.

Sakura, in a fit of panic and quick thinking, brought her leg up, and kicked backwards, connecting with the man's knee.

She heard a popping sound as the man screamed, releasing her from his grip as he fell backwards, screaming. She ran forward, picking up Miaka's unconscious form, and ran into the alley way on her left.

Sakura could feel something warm and thick running down her back. She stopped, and set Miaka down on the ground so she could find out what it was.

She reached her hand back, and felt the area around the shirt it was soaked… and ripped? She felt around some more, and found out that she had a long cut running across her middle back. Any deeper and she wouldn't have been running!

Fortunately though, from what she could feel, it wasn't deep. Apparently the squeaky man had swung at the last moment as he was falling and she was running, just grazing right there. It would probably scab over in an hour. The alleyway was suddenly cast in shadows.

"Sorry Miss Lady Person, but boss said to comes and gets ya. He don' like what you done did to him, Miss." The giant man Willie said as Sakura turned around. He began to bumble towards her and Miaka, and Sakura quickly snatched Miaka off the ground. She ran towards the other end.

She was suddenly sent flying as she tripped over something, sending Miaka into a pile of trash. Fortunately for Miaka, though, the trash seemed to be mostly very, very old clothes. Sakura could here her groan a little.

Sighing in relief that Miaka was alright, she turned to look at what she had tripped over, safe for the moment because Willie was at the other end of the alley, still clomping slowly.

Sakura gasped, and then blushed, and then gasped again as she realized what she had tripped over. It was a naked boy lying in a puddle of shimmering gold! Or at least what looked like gold. Sakura followed the yellow strands, until she noticed that the long golden strands were attached to his head! He had extremely long, blonde hair! But still… he was just lying there in the middle of the alley, sleeping like a baby! But…

He was covered in blood. He didn't have any wounds as far as Sakura could see; but then again, she couldn't see all of him, except for his back and buttocks. She blushed even more when the boy stirred, seeming to have woken up to the kick to his chest.

The boy turned around so that he lay facing Sakura, revealing his entire body to her, as she gasped for air, trying not to pass out from embarrassment. His eyes fluttered for a moment, then opened wide to reveal the most beautiful pair of cobalt eyes that Sakura had ever seen. They appeared to be so deep, you could get lost in them if you weren't careful…

"'Scuse me sir, I needs to get to the miss over there If you would be a kind person, and please move, I can does what the boss tolds me to do." The giant man asked politely as he came across the naked boy. The boy turned his head to look at him, blinked, and then began to stand up. The boy steadied himself. He appeared to be a bit woozy, and took a step or two to help keep his balance. He then angled his head so he could see all seven feet of Willie, squinted, then opened his mouth.

"Wow! You're huge!" He shouted in amazement. He had never seen anyone in the lab this big, and the biggest person he had ever seen was the head of the guard, who had been an 6-foot eight-inch tall foreigner who had been built like a wall.

"No, I'm Willie. Huge is a silly name." Willie said stupidly, staring in confusion at the boy in front of him. Why hadn't he moved? He had asked politely, and most people moved after the first time he asked.

"Oh, well since you introduced yourself, I'll introduce my self! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! 18 years old, Cell 7, Project 5776, codename KYUUBI!" He said enthusiastically, grabbing the man's frying pan-sized hand, and shaking it vigorously.

Willie was confused even more. What was this kid babbling about? And he just realized that Naruto wasn't wearing any clothes. Wasn't that considered impolite? That's what mommy always told him, and father had always said "Listen to your mother". Now he was thinking strange thoughts… what had he come here to do?

Willie heard a shuffling sound, and looked up from the strange kid in front of him to see a pinkette pulling a small red-head out of a pile of garbage. He stared at them for a second as Naruto continued to shake his hand. The dim bulb in his head flickered on as he remembered what he was doing.

"'scuse me. I gots a job to do." Willie said trying to get Naruto to move. The boy wasn't moving though, finally being able to meet someone new. He didn't want Willie to leave yet.

Willie sighed. He had to do what boss told him to do, and remove anyone forcefully who got in his way.

"Sorry," He said, bringing his arm up to make a powerful chop onto Naruto's head. He swung down, waiting for the snapping sound of the boys neck. He flinched a little, never liking that sound.

He felt the collision of his hand against something, and Naruto shut up, but there was no snapping sound. He didn't feel any hair, and it felt like fingers were grabbing onto his hand, stopping him from killing Naruto.

Willie opened his eyes. The giant stared down in surprise and amazement as looked down at Naruto. The boy was holding the gigantic arm up with one hand, stopping Willie's attack. The boy no longer looked cheerful, and instead looked very serious.

"Self defense protocol 59, when attacked by a friendly human being, strike back with non-lethal force." Naruto said robotically, repeating the words that were running through his head. The scientists who had raised him had taught him everything about how to survive. He then gave a fox-like grin at the enormous man.

"Since we've been introduced, that means were friendly, right?" He said cheerfully. Willie just stared down at the naked boy.

"Huh?" Was all Willie said, before he was flying through the air, and twenty meters down the alleyway, hitting the dirt-covered alley with a loud _smack!_ Naruto looked at the man with concern.

"Oops? Did I use too much force?" He asked himself, staring at the unconcious heap. He then shrugged, and turned to Sakura, who was staring at the boy in amazement. Miaka was sleeping in Sakura's arms, and squirmed a little to change her position.

They stared at each other for a few minutes… and Sakura's eyes began to drop lower on Naruto's body… down… down… until her eyes rested upon _that…_ Sakura blushed deeply, very deeply.

Naruto followed Sakura's gaze, until his eyes also rested upon _that_. He looked at it confusedly, then he looked back up at Sakura, and stared at her blushing face for a moment. Then he looked back down, then back up, down, up, down, up, down. He then finally opened his mouth to speak.

"What? It's a penis. Why are you staring at it?" He said, wondering what the matter with the girl. Her blush only deepened.

"That's exactly why!" She shouted, even more embarrassed that she had been confronted about it.

"Because it's a penis? It's a urethra, used to remove digestive wastes from the body, and it is also the male reproductive organ. What's so amazing about that? Haven't you ever seen one before?" Sakura just glared at him through her blush.

"No I haven't, except for Sex-ed. That's why I'm…" _savoring the sight of it! Ino's gonna be so jealous!_, Sakura's thoughts drifted from the situation for a moment. But the thought of Ino reminded Sakura that she had to get home quickly, or else they might get in trouble. It should've been nearing six o'clock, according to Sakura's calculations.

"Dang! I have to get home quickly or else Miaka's mom and dad…" Sakura stopped, noticing the change in Naruto's attitude at the mention of "dad". He stiffened, his eyes appearing to shift to red for a second, then back to the deep blue they had been before. Naruto then turned to a large pile of trash laying against the wall, and dove into it, digging frantically.

She could see shimmering drops falling from Naruto's eyes as he dug, and she could see his lips moving. They kept forming the same word over and again. "_Daddy! Daddy!_" He was mouthing as tears streamed down his face. He suddenly stopped digging, and she realized he was holding onto a large form… the size of a grown man.

Sakura shifted Miaka to the other shoulder, because her left arm was falling asleep. Man, was she heavy!

She took a few steps closer to Naruto, who had began to rock the still form, crying into it. She could here him sobbing "Daddy!" now over and over into it. She walked closer still, and gasped in horror as she realized what the boy was holding.

It was a dead man! She could see the pale white face, the blood-stained shirt, and the bullet holes that exited through his back. That explained where the blood on Naruto had come from!

"Oh my god!" She whispered to herself, not wanting to scream and wake up Miaka. A few tears of her own fell down her face as she watched the pitiful sight of Naruto crying into the man's still form.

Setting Miaka carefully back onto the pile of trash that she had pulled her from, Sakura walked back to the crying blonde. He looked up, his eyes puffy, and a little bit of dried blood had cracked off and was sprinkled on his face, accenting the whisker marks on his face. She stood there, unsure of how to comfort him, not knowing how one felt when one lost a parent and not wanting to give him false assurances.

Sakura jumped up three feet in the air when she felt something in her pocket begin to vibrate violently, letting out an annoying "New Message! New Message!" sound over and over again.

Attempting to calm her heartbeat, she pulled out the cell phone and flipped it open. The glowing little screen on it flashing "_New Message! Caller: Mom_". She sighed, and was about to hit the redial button when she felt a presence peering over her shoulder. She looked, and was met by Naruto's tear-stained face, peering curiously at the glowing screen. Them being that close to each other her made her jump forwards.

"Don't do that!" She yelled at him, glaring at him accusingly. She hated being scared like that.

"What?" Naruto asked, now confused. What had he done wrong?

"Peer over my shoulder! It's rude! And don't stand so close to me when your naked… it's… um…" She realized that she didn't know what to say. The entire day was catching up to her, making her feel exhausted. First, she had been nearly raped. Then she had ran away from her would-be rapists, and _then_ she tripped over Naruto, seen a naked boy, watched him hurl a man twice his size and weight, and had seen her first dead body, outside of T.V. and her grandmother's funeral.

She sighed, sitting down on one of the trashcans. The cut on her back was also beginning to bug her again. She sighed, and looked at the cell phone. Dialing her mother's number quickly, she raised the phone up to her ear. After a few rings, someone on the other end picked up.

"Hello?" Came a male voice over the speaker. Her dad must've picked up.

"Dad? Is mom there?" Sakura asked, her voice a little unsteady. She didn't want to cry… she didn't want to cry… she didn't want to cry…

"Sakura? Is something wrong?" Her father's voice sounded concerned.

"No… I just need you to come pick us up. Today's been a little stressful, and I don't feel like walking for an hour to get back to the house after taking Miaka home. It'll be dark before eight, and I don't like walking alone in the dark." She said, not mentioning Naruto.

"Oh… well, here's your mother. She'll be the one to pick you, I gotta leave soon." He said grumpily, not liking the fact that Sakura was hiding something from him and she wouldn't tell him what it was. A father had to be concerned, you know.

"Alright." She heard her father say "here she is" as he passed the phone to her mother. Her mother's cheerful voice sounded loudly over the phone.

"Hi honey! Where do you need me to get you?" She said cheerfully. Her mother was almost always in a good mood, but when you got on her bad side…

"I need you to pick me up over by the Kwik Mart gas station, over on the south side of the park." Sakura said, thinking that would be the closest place to where the were now.

"Ooh… honey, be careful! That part of town is dangerous, and you never know what could happen!" Her mother warned, having been down in that part quite a few times, mostly on dares. She had never liked it at any time she had gone, and never would.

"I know mom… trust me, I know." Sakura muttered, thinking back to what had happened barely more than an hour ago. She shuddered, remembering what that stupid, squeaky little man had nearly done to her…

Suddenly she remembered Naruto was standing there, naked, while she was talking on the phone. What had reminded her was that not only did the weight on the wide trashcan shift, a few of the strands of gold that Naruto called hair had blown across her vision, and his head was nearly resting on her shoulder as he leaned in to listen.

She tried not to blush, but it was becoming harder and harder as he scooted closer and closer, and now he was nearly sitting next to her, their knees almost touching.

"Sakura honey? You still there?" Her mother voice broke her out of her intense concentration on not concentrating on the boy next to her. She stumbled with her words for a few seconds, caught by surprise, and finally settling on an affirmative noise. Her mother chuckled at the sound.

"You sound like your father when I interrupt him while he's watching T.V." Sakura smiled, knowing exactly what happened when you interrupted her father's "T.V. time".

"Uh… mom? Do we have room in the car for a friend?" She asked, the thought popping into her head. She couldn't just leave Naruto here!

"Shouldn't be a problem… Why? Is there something wrong?" The elder Haruno asked. Perhaps her friend was having some family troubles?

"Yeah… but… well, it's hard to explain. It'll be obvious when you come to pick us up." She explained, knowing that a guy without any clothes would be very obvious to anyone, especially to her kind hearted mother.

"Alright, see you in a bit. Love you." Her mother said. Sakura could here the slamming of a door, and the revving of a car.

"Love you too, 'bye" She said, flipping the phone shut. She sighed, lowering her hand and phone and resting it on the trashcan. Wait… she didn't remember a trashcan ever being this soft or warm. Sakura stiffened, remembering who was sitting next to her, and that he had no… clothes… on…

Sakura looked fearfully at where her hand was placed. Her face suddenly turned red. A deep, deep red. Naruto didn't seem to notice or mind. In fact, he seemed to be staring at Sakura. Sakura turned her blushing face to his still one, and that's when she realized that there were tears in his eyes. He was crying! Had she hurt him in some way? What did she do? Her mental questions were answered by Naruto's next statement.

"You consider me your friend?" Naruto asked, a tear running down his face.

"Yeah. Why? Is there a problem?" She responded, confused. Did he see friendship as a problem. She may have just met him, and didn't even really know him, but he had saved her, and she considered that friend-worthy. Naruto shook his head.

Sakura looked away, towards Miaka, who looked like she was just waking up, when she suddenly felt two very warm arms wrap around her, and her shoulder was becoming wet as Naruto cried into it, soaking through the fabric of her shirt.

"I've never had a friend before, no one wanted to be one." Naruto sobbed. He had never had any friends, besides Iruka, at the lab. There were some nice scientists who at least treated him as if he were something other than a science experiment. The eight other subjects, who were mostly kids like him, were either kind, distant, or…

Naruto shuddered remembering the boy who went by the name of Gaara, or… Project Shukaku. Naruto was the only one who could get him to talk, truly talk, but even then Gaara's subject matter was limited to his wanting to destroy. Gaara had two siblings, but they weren't projects like him, they just lived in the lab.

Sakura took Naruto's shaking as a sign that he was getting cold. After all, he was… naked… Sakura, for the nth time that day, blushed as deeply as humanly possible. She had a naked boy hugging her! Why did he keep doing these things?!

"Eww! Boy parts!" She heard her eight-year-old cousin scream. Apparently, she was awake. Having the little girl point it out made it even more embarrassing for Sakura, but what Naruto said next made her explode.

"Yes, they are. Haven't you ever seen them before?" The golden-haired boy said innocently. Naruto was shoved off of the trashcan.

"Pervert! She's only eight! Of course she hasn't seen anything!" Sakura screamed at the boy lying prone in the dirt. Sakura was once again blushing when she found her eyes almost magnetically attracted to the strange boy's well-formed rear. She huffed embarrassedly.

"Come on, let's go! My mother's going to meet us at the park."

---SECTIONBREAK---

After leaving the alley through the opposite direction of which they came, Sakura made Naruto stay in the shadows until they reached the intersection. Just across the street, the park and all of it's happy family-time joy spread out before them. After Sakura had Naruto slip into a small metal trashcan, one he barely fit into and was forced in with much bickering, she made Miaka run across the empty street to go get their picinic supplies from the park, which she happily agreed to and skipped merrily on her way, singing a little ditty she learned in from her brother.

Sakura sat down with a sigh, weary from stress. She leaned her head against Naruto's trashcan as they waited for the little girl to return.

"So what did you need your picinic basket for?" Naruto asked, peering above the edge of the trashcan. The circular metal lid was perched on his head like a sombrero. Sakura giggled at the sight.

"I'm going to have you wrap the blanket around your waist so you're not completley naked." She said, her giggle becoming worse as the lid on his head began to slide forward.

"What is so bad about me being nude?" He asked innocently. Suddenly, his vision was obscured by the trash-lid sliding over his eyes. Sakura's giggle turned into a laugh as he batted at the offending circle of metal. As he swung, his can over-balanced, spilling him onto the cement. Sakura only laughed harder as Naruto stood up, turned around, and attacked the tubular tin terror, beating it into an almost un-recognizable shape. He stood there, huffing angrily, glaring at what was left of his inanimate assailant.

For a few seconds, they both just stood there, Sakura laughing as Naruto calmed down. After a minute or two, Sakura's laughs died down as she realized that Naruto no longer had anything to hide in, that being the only empty trashcan. Her face flush red as for once again her eyes were drawn to his toned body. She began to unwillingly memorize his body with her eyes, everything being analyzed and stored in the back of her brain as she tried to resist her teenage hormones.

The boy's long golden hair suddenly obscured her vision of his body, breaking her line of sight, and her train of perverted thoughts. She blushed a little deeper as Naruto turned around, revealing the front of his body to her, and those perverted thoughts came rushing back.

"Hey Sakura? I'm out of things to hide behind, so what are we gonna do?" Sakura stuttered for a moment, not being able to focus due to close proximity of a gorgeous male body. _Funny,_ She thought, that itty-bitty thought that could barely squeeze itself out from between her hormones. _He didn't affect me like this before… maybe it was the near-death experience…_

"Sakura! Who the hell is that, and what the hell are you doing with him?!" A loud female voice screamed from behind her. Sakura, broken from her wicked thoughts, turned around fearfully to face the voice that could only belong to her very, very pissed off mother.

Alrighty! New story, and I'm ending the chapter here because I'm evil, and sick of writing right now. I basically just wanted to get this posted ASAP.

**I know, I know. This story seems to focus a little on Sakura being a pervert… but hey! She's a seventeen-year-old girl who's still experiencing the death-throes of puberty, and is finally coming into contact (not literally) with the male body. She is what we consider to be "Naïve".**

**And I know this started out all "Hi-ya! Gung-ho! Kung-fu chop!", but it will do that from time to time, being mostly Angsty and Romancy, with a lot of Action thrown into the mix.**

**And you know what is kind of funny?… If you read back to about a quarter of the way through the story, you'll remember Naruto going "Daddy, daddy! Wake up!" and Naruto goes psycho and kills everybody.**

**Anyway, to finish this little story, I have to tell you another one. You know those scary movies like _The Grudge_, _The Ring_, _The Omen_, and games like _F.E.A.R: First Encounter Assault Recon_ or something like that that has those creepy little kids who can and would rather kill you than look at you. Yeah, those kids terrify me. Absolutely. Utterly. Terrify me. I'm not even friggin kidding. Those kids are what give me nightmares. Not _Doom_, not _Nightmare on Elm Street_, not _Barney_, those god damned kids.**

**Back to what I was telling you. Ten minutes after I wrote that part, I fell asleep. And I dreamt. I dreamt a dream where I was walking through a huge house, you know those old mansion-styled houses, and I could hear this little boy's voice going "Daddy? Daddy where are you? Do you know where my Daddy went?" over and over again.**

**I yelled back going "Who are you?" and "What the fuck do you want?". The kid never responded, he just kept on repeating himself. I ran down the stairs, trying to escape/find the kid, before he found me. The stairs were one of those ones that are right against a wall, with a railing and the hallway continuing next to it. I went down stairs, and looked around the kitchen area. All of the sudden I heard my dad yell "What is that? Ted? Go find out who that is!".**

**Suddenly, I heard that voice coming from the top of the stair case, going "Do you know where my daddy went?" I ran to the stairs, and stood on the bottom step, looking up. All I could see was a silhouetted face looking down at me through the railing. It asked me again if I knew where it's daddy was, and I screamed at it that I didn't know. The thing was, I suddenly remembered why this was so familiar… _it was exactly what I wrote!_ That's why I was so god damned fucking terrified. Not just scared, _terrified_ of what that kid was. I was crying, screaming at it to get the fuck away. It began to walk towards the end of the railing, to the top of the steps, where I could see it's tiny body shaded by the blue moon light. Tears were streaming down my face, as I put my hand to the light switch and screamed one last "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!!" and flicked on the lights.**

**Suddenly… I woke up. Crying, heart beating at a million miles an hour, body soaked in sweat… never had I been more terrified of anything. I couldn't get back to sleep and had to get up and walk around outside in the winter cold to calm myself. I then went to get a drink and something to eat so I could settle myself. I finally got back to sleep after about an hour.**

**Yeah, scary crap, I know.**

**Anyway…**

**If you're wondering how Naruto learned Sakura's name (Sakura never introduced herself formally to Naruto), Naruto had his ear right next to Sakura's cell-phone, that, coupled with enhanced hearing, he heard every word that was said, including Sakura's name.**

**Also, if you hadn't noticed, for those of you who have read my story "A Broken Heart" (which is a bit of a misnomer), you'll already know who Tetsunouske and Miaka are. And yes, those are Miaka's exact lines**

**So please, R&R, and leave some god damn flames will ya? I need the constructive criticism.**

**Sincerely,**

**ChickenDeNoodleyNoodle the Third, most youthful, and somewhat profane, chicken in the world.**

**P.S: Tell me if this needs fixing **

**Pardon the Parody **

Naruto followed Sakura's gaze, until his eyes also rested upon _that_. He looked at it confusedly, then he looked back up at Sakura, and stared at her blushing face for a moment. Then he looked back down, then back up, down, up, down, up, down, left, square, triangle, R2, R2, L2, L1, R3, triangle, triangle, cross (X), cross, circle, up, left, down, right, up, left, up, right, down.

After entering the cheat code, Naruto suddenly gained the ability to breath fire and shoot ice out of his hands. However, Sakura lifted up a boulder with her super-human strength and threw it at him. Midway through it's flight, Sakura blasted it with her laser-vision, scattering it into a million flying pieces of death.

Naruto spewed one big massive fireball into the flying stone chips heading towards him, turning them into magma. He created a gigantic wall of ice in front of him to stop himself from getting burned.

Suddenly, Miaka dropped a bomb on the alley, dropping both Sakura's and Naruto's hitpoints to 0, knocking them out and making Miaka the winner of the fight.

**Pardon the Parody **


	2. Chapter 2: A Subtle Omen

**Two things, my wonderful readers…  
1) I hope this chapter is up to par with your expectations  
and 2)… I apologize for the missing two-thousand words that should be in the body of this chapter. I just wanted to end it and get it posted ASAP, and it seemed like a good place to stop.**

**ON WITH THE FANFIC!!!**

Chapter 2:  
A Subtle Omen, and there's a pig in the ramen shop

"My lord, Orochimaru, why do you not trust me with this assignment?" the pale, sickly looking boy asked, bowing in front of the dark haired man standing at the gigantic window looking down on the streets, 50 stories below. The Oto-nin Sound Company Tower was an imposing sight, located in the busiest part of downtown Konoha.

"Because, Kimimaro, you are too weak, too old, too obsolete. You were stolen technology to begin with, and now I have something else to steal. My resources tell me that the Akatsuki have already come out with some better toys to play with, and I plan to make them mine." Orochimaru said wickedly, staring down at the crowded streets below. He was already forming plans in his head about what he would do with this new project. The mole he had slipped into the Akatsuki Corp. had reported nothing new since last month, and Orochimaru did not yet know of the escape incident.

"I am also beginning to wonder if the other four are worth keeping around too…" he trailed off, turning around towards his extensive desk. There was a symbol flashing at the bottom of his flat-screen monitor. Ignoring the boy, who was still bowing, he sat down and opened the e-mail, already knowing who the missive was from. The spy had taken too long to report!

Orochimaru sat quietly, reading his screen. Kimimaro, lifting his head a little so he could see, watched as the snake-like man's eyes flickered back and forth across the display. He could see a sudden change in the dark haired man's face as he reached the end of the message. His eyes darkened, and a frown came over his face. He stood up, and gave Kimimaro a sharp glare.

"You are to tell Kabuto to wake the other four, and wake them properly, even if it takes two weeks." He commanded, remembering what had happened the last time he had tried to wake one of his projects from stasis too quickly. The subject's name had been Dosu, and attempting to de-stabilize him in less than a day had sent him into severe convulsions, entering into a seizure as soon as he hit air. It had left him physically disfigured, and they had had to wrap him head to toe in bandages, leaving him his one good eye to see with. Orochimaru did not want that happening again, especially with these… _special_ four.

"Whatever for, my… lord?" Kimimaro questioned politely, coughing a little at the end. He too had been pulled from stasis a little too quickly, not nearly as bad as what had happened to Dosu, but had left him somewhat sick and vulnerable. It wasn't that he was handicapped, he could still kill a man, but it had left him weaker, and growing weaker every week.

"Because my new toy has escaped, and they're soon to send a cleanup squad. It seems they're quite discombobulated for the moment, after my toy escaped… apparently he made quite an exit." He hissed, grinning a little at the thought of his rivals being in a state of confusion after their little… mishap.

Of course, the two companies weren't rivals on the outside. The Oto-nin Sound Company stood a full head and shoulders above all other music and recording companies, receiving millions, billions even, of dollars per year from their record deals. But the president, Orochimaru, believed that if they could control the world of music with an iron fist, why couldn't he control the world of reality along with it? So he entered the black market, both dealing and buying secret weapons and technologies.

And everyone, _everyone_, knew that the Akatsuki Weapon Corp. worked with the government, for the government, and against the government at the same time, selling some of their more… _hidden_ experiments on the black market to shady groups and countries at war. In fact, it was common knowledge. What wasn't common knowledge, however, was the fact that due to an investigation and a plant in the Akatsuki, the government has gotten into some of these deals, dictating which countries were yes and no, and which terrorist groups they could sell to. The Akatsuki didn't always listen, of course, and feigned ignorance when caught.

"Go, make your report, and could you ask the secretary on the way out to send me some chocolate? I need something sweet and sugary right now." The snake-like man asked, making little shooing motions with his hands. After the pale boy left with another bow, he sat down, waiting for his chocolate. He was hoping for some good Swiss chocolate, that could never be bad chocolate, but any type of chocolate would do right now.

----S-t-o-r-y--B-r-e-a-k---N-e-w--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--S-t-a-r-t-i-n-g----

"Uh… hi Mom?" Sakura said sheepishly, giving a small wave as her face flushed red. _God this must look awkward_, She thought to her self, shuffling her feet a little.

"What are you doing with a naked boy, and what were you planning on doing?" The elder Haruno said with clenched teeth, her hands balled into fists. _My daughter asks me to come and pick up her and a friend, and I come here and find her with some… some… gigolo! And Miaka's nowhere in sight!_

Speaking of the little devil, she had just crossed the street a block down from where Sakura was, and began heading down the road. With the large picnic basket and the blanket piled on her arms, she couldn't see over, and could just barely see off the sides of the basket. Miaka didn't see the dark trench coat and shoes of the man in front of her until it was too late.

"Please watch where you are going, little girl." A man with funny red eyes and a rice hat-type-shade-thingy, she could never remember what Aniki said the name was. He was standing next to a big man, who was wearing clothes that looked like his, and had a large wrapped thingy strapped onto his back. He looked like he had… blue skin!

"Sorry about that, Mister Person-san!" She exclaimed happily, standing up and dusting off her legs and backside. She bent over to pick up the basket and blanket, only to find that the blanket was all splayed out on the cement, and a couple of food objects had fallen out of the basket. Miaka sighed, and began to pick them up. She was late already, and now she would be even later!

"Mind if I keep this?" The dark-haired man said, crouching down to pick up an apple. He held it up to the little girl, who stared at it questioningly for a moment. She then grinned, and nodded her head vigorously, and then continued with her work.

"We have no time to dawdle Itachi, we should get going." The blue guy whispered to the nice man with the funny eyes. Miaka was barely able to pick up what he said, but she heard the nice guy's name anyway. The nice man nodded, Watachi or something, and the two began to walk away. She spun around, and waving energetically, shouted "Good bye!"

However, it seemed that they hadn't heard her. She sighed, not liking being ignored, and turned around to finish picking up her stuff. After a few minutes, she finally got everything cleaned up, and began to waddle as fast as she could while carrying all of the picnic gear.

She finally turned the corner, and set down the stuff. She saw a tall, older brunette yelling at a pink haired girl, while a naked blonde boy just stood off to the side, staring at everything in confusion. He then noticed her standing behind everyone and smiled, giving a little wave. She waved back, and turned to face her aunt and cousin.

"Hiya Auntie Emiko! Hi Sakura-nee-chan! I brought the blanket to cover up naked person!" She shouted, still not knowing Naruto's name. The other two turned to face Miaka, and they began yelling and talking at the same time.

"Miaka, tell my mother that Naruto isn't some type of man-whore!" She shouted, blushing a little at using the word "whore".

"Don't lie to your Auntie, Miaka! I'll give you a spanking you won't forget if you lie to me!"

"She wouldn't lie in the first place, and Naruto isn't a gigolo! He's the person I wanted you to pick up with us!"

"Why? So you could take him back to the house and do… _things_ with him?!"

They continued their spat as Miaka joined Naruto at staring at the two. It seemed they both had quite a temper when you pissed them off. Naruto and Miaka looked at each other, nodded, looked back, and walked up to the two. Miaka took hold of her aunt's leg, and began to try and pull her in the opposite direction of Sakura, while Naruto wrapped his arms around Sakura's, pulled her tightly to his chest, and picked her up, carrying her backwards. Sakura's flushed face increased tenfold as she began to struggle, feeling his groin pressed to her lower back.

"Put me down, you perv!"

"Ha, I knew it! You two are doing something!"

"No we're not, dammit!"

"Did you just swear at _me_, missy?"

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"

It was going to be a long day.

---S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k---

"Alright, were going to stop at home, give him some of your father's clothes, and then run to the bank." Her mother said, turning the steering wheel so she could pull out of the Mitsurugi's driveway. They had just dropped off Miaka at her home to a very relieved Tetsu. Her parent's never worried about her, both because they trusted Sakura, and they had a mother hen for a son, who did all of the worrying for them. When they had arrived at the small two-story house on the outskirts of town, Tetsu had come rushing out, his tall blonde hair blowing behind him. He had whipped open the door, and grabbed Miaka in a crushing hug.

"Miaka are you okay? Everything's all right? How'd you get that bump on your head? What were you guys doing? You were an hour late!" He babbled on and on about Miaka's safety and how that they should be more responsible. Sakura sighed, having to go through this every time she babysat Miaka. Tetsu was so anal retentive about his sister that Sakura wouldn't have been surprised if she had found out that he followed her to school, held her hand as she walked down stairs, and made her wear every piece of safety gear known to mankind when she played sports. Fortunately, he didn't. Tetsu suddenly noticed the large moving bundle of cloth in the back.

"Hey!" He stated, pointing at the bundle, "What's that?"

Naruto's head popped out of the mess, most of his hair still inside the blanket. A hand managed to snake it's way out from beneath the folds, giving a small wave before being engulfed by another avalanche of fabric falling on top of it.

"Hello!" Naruto said happily, giving a grin. He tried not to laugh at Tetsu's gravity defying hair. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto!"

Tetsu stared for a moment, his large blue eyes glaring at a piece of exposed flesh from Naruto's thigh. He suddenly entered a defensive pose, grabbing his sister around the waist with one arm, and holding out the other as if to say, "Halt!"

"You aren't wearing any clothing, you fiend! You are trying to corrupt my sister so she can become your sex slave! I shall protect her, for…" Tetsu was nailed in the face with a frying pan. Where Sakura got the frying pan, nobody knows, but she had one with her anyway.

"That's not it you dolt! I've already had a long and bloody battle with my mother, and I'm not going to start one with you. Now listen up!" She then proceeded to explain how they had found Naruto, leaving out the bit about her being nearly raped, so that it seemed more like Squeaky and Willie had just tried to mug them, and Naruto had saved them from the two idiots. She also left out her private thoughts about Naruto's body, but nobody had to know that.

Tetsu had stared at her for a moment, blinking occasionally. He took a deep breath, and had returned to his rant about endangering his sister's life with her silly ideas, and that she should know better than to go into the ghettos. Sakura just sighed, and screamed at him to get his ass inside before she smacked him again with the frying pan. Sakura's mother smacked her on the back of her head for swearing, and Sakura glowered, her 'rope of patience' was becoming shorter by the second. Tetsu huffed, snorting at the threat, and threw his sister over his shoulder, carrying her like a sack. As they pulled out, they could see Miaka giggling and pounding on her big brother's back in an attempt to free herself.

They drove off, leaving a small cloud of dust behind them. Tetsu walked inside, and dropped his sister on the floor, much to her displeasure at losing her fun. Tetsu then hurried to his room so he could get his uniform.

"Happy days as an employ-ee of the A-kat-suki!" He said in singsong, picking up his long katana. He hated dragging the thing around, but he loved the sword itself. The sword, which was nearly two feet longer than him (making it about 7 feet long), was so finely crafted that it weighed about the same as a regular katana. And his sheer amount of skill with the sword made him a formidable opponent, for he knew the exact weight and balance of it, being able to calculate the amount of power and the angle needed for a particular swing at a moment's notice.

An Akatsuki member, one with funny red eyes that seemed to spin, had been walking by the kenjutsu dojo he had been training in. Noticing the sheer skill that the blonde kid with the ridiculous hair wielded, the man would return day after day, watching him, inspecting him, observing him. The first day that the man had seen Tetsu pick up the long daitachi, the man walked in and offered him a position in the Akatsuki as a special-forces guard. Tetsu gladly accepted, needing a job at the time.

Tetsu walked out of the door of his home, waving good-bye to Miaka, telling her to be safe, not talk to strange men (like Naruto!), look both ways when crossing the street, etcetera, and leaving a note on the door for his parent's return. He began to walk down the street, towards the Akatsuki Corp. Headquarters, located within the Special Weapons Facility. He pondered a thought as he walked down the street.

_Uzumaki… Naruto… Where have I heard that name before? … Ah well, if it was important, I wouldn't have forgotten._

---S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k---

Sakura's mother waited for the red light to change. She hated red lights, _hated_ them. They were God's curse on drivers, making it so that they had to wait an extra three minutes every time they came to one of the accursed things. Emiko sighed, shaking her head. Whining about it would change nothing. She looked up into the rear-view mirror, watching the cars that were stacking up behind them. Most of the other driver's either looked irritated, or were too busy talking on their cell-phones to notice. She suddenly noticed movement at the bottom of the mirror, and switched her attention to that.

Emiko stifled a giggle as she watched Naruto battle the blanket he was wrapped in. Twisting, turning, scratching, batting, rolling, and falling, he ended up tangling himself worse than when he had started. All she could see now were some of his golden tresses, and an angry cobalt eye peeking out from under the folds. She couldn't hold it back, and finally let lose a giggle.

"Mom, light's changed!" Sakura said, prodding her mother, removing her from her reverie. Her mother blinked, staring at Sakura blankly, letting the information sink in.

Suddenly it hit her. "Oh! The light has changed!" She said, putting pressure on the gas. The car jerked forward, then finally settled into a steady speed. Naruto was pressed tightly against the back of the seat, his blanket wrapped into an even more complex knot.

They soon reached the Haruno's apartment building, pulling into the small parking garage located just across the road. Fortunately, there was a catwalk that stretched over the road, so that people in the garage could get to their apartments without waiting for the traffic to stop.

The two females were stifling giggles the entire time as they watched Naruto hop along behind them, being too tied up in the blankets to be able to get out of them without help or ripping it. All that they were able to see of Naruto through his wrappings were his blue eyes, all of his hair finally being sucked into the blanket.

When they reached the end of the skywalk, Sakura had to help Naruto down the stairs so that he didn't hurt himself by falling off.

At the bottom of the stairs, Sakura was about to let go of the corner of cloth she had a hold of, when she tripped. It wasn't far, and the landing was cushioned by nice soft grass. She felt something tug as she fell, and after she hit the ground, something landed on top of her. Something heavy. She looked down, and saw a mass of gold, a few of the yellow strands falling gently onto her face. An orange-and-blue shadow fell over them.

Once again, it seemed that God liked to poke fun at her. Not only was she caught in _another_ embarrassing situation with Naruto, it turned out that that little edge, _that little square of fabric_, was the key to the entire puzzle knot that was Naruto's blanket, which was now gently floating down and covering them.

"Sakura? Sakura, honey, you alright? Naruto?" Emiko said worriedly, hurrying down the last few stairs to the bottom. Bending down to pick up the edge of the blanket, she saw sudden struggling from beneath the blanket. Worried someone was injured, she ripped off the blanket. What she saw was not someone injured, but… Naruto was in the process of getting injured as Sakura attempted to crush his trachea with her hands as they wrapped around his neck.

"You pervert! You did that on purpose! I'm gonna strangle you!" She said, already in the process of her threat.

Emiko blushed as she tried to pry the naked boy from Sakura's deadly grasp, hoping that no one would stumble across them and their rather embarrassing situation.

---S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k---

The trip to the mall was uneventful after they had gotten Naruto a pair of her father's old jeans and an old shirt, both of which were too baggy for the slender, but well-built lad. They had to cut an extra three notches in one of her father's belts before they could get a hole that would actually keep his pants up and snug around his waist.

Naruto was staring around in amazement. Never had he seen so many people before! Nor so many vibrant colors all shoved into one space! As Sakura led him through the mall doors, her mother trailed behind them, looking slightly disinterested in the surroundings, if not annoyed. Then again, if Naruto knew that Emiko had a deep dislike for loud, crowded spaces, he would probably have understood better.

Suddenly, he was accosted by an insane level of sensations flooding his systems, sights, smells, sounds, even the vibrations of the tile floor, all amplified by his inhuman sensory system. He could hear a couple ten feet away discussing marriage, could see a man down on the opposite end of the atrium holding up hotdogs for sale. He could feel people walking through the tiles, able to tell who was going where and which direction just by the vibrations of the floor.

But out of all of these sensations… only one thing stood out. This heavenly scent wafted around him, practically tugging him towards its source. He could almost _see_ the scent, he could feel the scent, he could taste the scent… and each and every tug pulled him away from the two Haruno women. Sakura almost missed him as she turned around to find he was gone. She quickly spotted the gold-covered head moving through the crowd. Grabbing her mother's wrist, they quickly made their way towards Naruto's location, which was quickly approaching a small restaurant. The sign above the open doors read _Ichiraku Ramen Bar_.

When Naruto stepped into the tiny place, he felt as if he were in heaven. The wonderful scent berated him, surrounded him, begging him to find its source. He looked around, trying to find where it was coming from. He could see a large, but not fat, kid with reddish-brown hair talking to a pretty blonde in a booth, and a bored looking guy with a ponytail that made his head resemble a pineapple stood off to the side, occasionally commenting on the conversation. There was also a couple of older kids there too, two were guys and one girl were sitting down at a table off to the side, and there were a couple of other people hanging around near the wide picture windows that viewed the outside.

His interest was drawn to the two guys and the girl. One of them was wearing what looked to be a tight green spandex shirt, and green jogging pants. He also had a funny bowl-cut and the hugest eyebrows Naruto had ever seen. He was talking animatedly to the man across from him, who looked to be twenty-ish. The man had long, dark brown hair, and he appeared to have… silvery-violet eyes. Odd. He looked as if he was barely tolerating the green-man's presence. The girl with them was the only one who ever responded to super-eyebrow's prodding, which consisted of "…eternal rival…" and "someday you'll understand the meaning of hard work!". What, was the long-haired guy lazy or something?

Naruto suddenly felt a presence flying towards him. He tensed, preparing for some sort of attack or gun-shot or something… but nothing happened but a loud squeal of "FOREHEAD GIRL!".

Naruto heard a grunt of surprise as something hit the floor loudly behind him. Naruto whipped around to see the pretty blonde sitting on top of Sakura, who (to him) had appeared out of nowhere. He looked up to see Haruno Emiko stifling giggles at the two girl's adolescent behavior, even though they should have well grown out of their… "friendly" rivalry. Sakura, however, was not nearly as amused.

"Get your hooves off of me, Piggy!" She screamed, pushing the smug blonde off of her. With an "eep!" the blonde fell to the floor. Sakura stood up angrily, and dodged to the side as the blonde lunged forward in an attempt to tackle the pinkette again. Things went quickly down hill as Sakura whacked the blonde on top of her head, which was countered by a sweep-kick, which in turn was countered by a quick roll to a flying tackle.

The two that had been with the blonde, and the three that had been over near the door, Fuzzy-eyebrows, his eternal rival, and the girl with the two buns on the sides of her head, were standing off to the side. The pineapple headed kid sighed, muttering "Troublesome" underneath his breath, while the stocky kid shook his head while munching down on a bag of cookies that had been in his pocket. Super-eyebrows looked as if he was excited, his eyes looking as if they were burning as he said something about "youthful beauties in youthful combat".

Naruto turned back to the escalating catfight, and sighed, wanting to end it so he could find the source of that wonderful scent. The two were battling tooth and claw with each other, almost literally.

Sakura was just about to lunge back at the blonde, who was making infuriating comments about the color of her hair, claiming that it was "lame" and "fake-looking". She was damn near ready to slaughter the yellow-haired bitch when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her torso, dragging her back and pinning her arms to her body. She felt herself being held against a solid chest, the heat from the body emanating through the old brown shirt the man wore. She knew it was a man/guy/boy because of the lack of… soft protrusion against her back. Strands of gold floated into her vision as she began to realize whom it was that was holding her. Her face flushed crimson; both in embarrassment and anger, making her resemble a ripe tomato.

"Sakura-chan, calm down." Naruto's voice sounded oddly seductive as he whispered in her ear, making her blush even more, and replacing the rest of her anger with just embarrassment.

"Ooooh! Who's the hottie, Forehead?" The blonde exclaimed, standing up from her sitting position on the floor, her attitude changing suddenly at the sight of the luscious blonde god holding onto Sakura.

Sakura began to struggle within Naruto's embrace, hoping to escape from the increasingly embarrassing situation. Naruto, however, took it as an attempt to resume the attack on the blonde Sakura called "Piggy", and only held on tighter.

During all of this, Emiko was having serious trouble trying not to bust a gut at the sight of the three. The two had been fighting and competing ever since they were ten, which is coincidentally when they both started to _really_ pay attention to boys… one in particular. Uchiha Sasuke, youngest of the two Uchiha brothers. She never understood what they saw in that angsty, secluded boy who would rather dream about surpassing his brother than look at you, and would give the "glare of death" if you so much as uttered a syllable in his presence. But then again, that seemed to be how "love" and attraction worked these days. You find the most depressing looking, yet handsome-ish, and angst filled and angry person available, and then you pine after them without them even acknowledging your existence.

But then again, so is life. She was beginning to hope that Naruto might be able change Sakura's attentions away from little Mr. Depression, contrary to her first thoughts of the blonde. It was undeniable that the long-haired young man had a _nice_ body, and that was putting lightly, and coming from an older woman… so therefore her opinions mattered.

"Alright, break it up!" A loud voice shouted from behind the counter. Everyone looked over to see an older man pointing a frying pan at them menacingly. They all glared at him, as if to say "What took you so long?"

"Uhh… please?" The old man added sheepishly, scratching the back of his head with the pan. With a shared sigh, most of the group surrounding the now-ended scuffle separated, heading back to their own tables and getting back to chatting about whatever they had been. However, five people remained, "Piggy", Mega-brow, Naruto, Sakura, and Emiko. Naruto, still with his death grip on Sakura, was staring at Piggy with confusion, wonder why (A) her name was Piggy, and (B) why she was staring at him that way… It was rather creepy.

Captain Uber-brow's motives though, were clear… especially with the way he would look at Sakura, blush, look again, open his mouth, blush again, and avert his gaze. He would then repeat the process several times, making a slightly different sound each attempt. Naruto wasn't sure he was going to do anything… that was until Bun-head came and grabbed him by the shoulders; tearing him away from the small group rather roughly and dragging him back to their table.

Sakura was beginning relax, realizing that the boy wasn't going to let go of his iron grip until she stopped struggling… God this must look so embarrassing! Being "hugged" by a beautiful man, all the while in an attempt to force herself out of his embrace… wait. Did she just refer to Naruto as beautiful?

"Ino, come on. Quit being troublesome and let's get going! Your dad doesn't like you being out late, remember." The pineapple-head said, walking up behind the female of the longhaired blondes. Naruto looked confused, wondering who this "Ino" was.

"But Pineapple-chan! He's so hot!" the blonde said whiningly, turning around and pouting, her eyes tearing up and expanding, pointing a finger at Naruto.

"Troublesome woman!" Pineapple muttered under his breath, frowning at the now puppy-eyed female blonde. " Your father's exact words were, and I quote: 'If a man looks at her, touches her, winks at her, flirts with her, talks to her, or even breaths at her, you are to rip of his testicles and feed them to him. If you fail… I will kill you.' End quote."

"But Shika!!! Please…" She was interrupted by a quick jerk on her hand. The pony-tailed boy began to drag her towards the door that led to the parking lot instead of back out to the mall.

"No 'buts' Ino. We have to go, and I'm not going to try and call a bluff that I'm pretty sure isn't." He said, making the red-headed man with them hold the door open for him so he could drag the reluctant blonde through it and to the outside.

Naruto still had his arms around Sakura as they watched the trio leave, his arms had loosened a little as they had watched the two argue. Sakura, remembering her embarrassing predicament, freed herself from Naruto's loose grasp. Brushing her clothes off and straightening the wrinkles of her shirt, she turned around to give Naruto a small smile.

"Well, that was fun," she said, acting as if it was nothing… though deep inside she was burning with rage that that stupid blonde pig had dared attack her in such a public place, and insult her naturally beautiful pink hair at the same time.

And also, when Naruto had held her tight to his body to restrain her, she could feel his chiseled chest through her dad's former old brown shirt.

Her face slightly flushed, she glanced up at Naruto… who seemed to be distracted by something. Following his deep blue gaze, she turned her body until she faced the chef-person. Glancing back, she followed it again until she realized his gaze was fixed upon a half-finished bowl of ramen, lying on the bar-counter. She watched as the chef reached out to pick up the wasted soup, and turned to pour it into one of several sinks.

Quizzically, she turned back to Naruto to ask him what he was staring at, only to realize that… he was crying? She rubbed her eyes, and then focused them back upon the handsome blonde's face. Yes! He was indeed crying! He seemed so forlorn, that she was about to ask him why he was crying… was it something she said at sometime today? Maybe something offensive? She opened her mouth, but she stopped when she realized that he was mouthing something.

"Such waste…" Naruto kept repeating, barely able to be heard. He took a step forward with his hand stretched out, almost as if he was trying to grab the bowl from the chef as it was rinsed so that the dish would be useable again to service a later customer. From behind Naruto, Emiko's voice popped up.

"Naruto, Sakura, dear? Are you guy's hungry? I'll buy a couple of bowls of ramen if you want." She said, glancing between her confused daughter and the lost looking blonde. A sudden change came over the strange boy, who suddenly looked as if he had seen God. Naruto pivoted slowly to face the elder Haruno, getting down on his knees as he turned.

"Oh, beautiful and kind woman! Thank you for revealing to me the name of this ambrosiac substance. I humbly accept your offer, oh wonderful one!" the awe-struck blonde said to the equally awe-struck older woman. Looking up, a slight flush on her face, she glanced at her daughter, hoping for an explanation of some sort. The younger girl was as confused as she was, staring at the prostrate blonde.

"Ummm… no problem?"

**Once again, I apologize for the length of the chapter! I had every intention of making it 7,000 words+! But I really wanted to get it posted, so I could end ShadowedShikyo's incessant nagging!**

**Anyway, just to let you guys know, I am accepting ideas for the powers of the JINCHUURIKI subjects… and also to let you know that if you submit any ideas, I probably won't accept them. I just want something to base my people off of, and I already have Gaara and the "Eight-Tailed" project already set up.**

**And also, could someone give me a list of the tailed beasts, you know… sorta like this:  
Shibi  
Nibi  
Kyuubi**

**Except with the other six in between "Nibi" and "Kyuubi".**

**And ha! Everyone gets to see 'Tachi and Kisame! Tetsunouske thickens the plot a bit, and it can only get better!**

**Slight summary of next chapter:  
The true damage involving ramen that only Naruto can be a part of, and fun in the mall!  
Angst and chaos may be involved too…**

**Please forgive me for the shortness, I love you all!  
ChickenDeNoodleyNoodle the Third, most youthful of all chickens!**

**PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!**


	3. Chapter 3: Fun at the Mall

You know… some people believe it to be humanly impossible to consume 12 bowls of ramen, no matter how hungry you are or how long it has been since you last ate. However, Naruto, an anomaly of nature, proved those people wrong. In fact, he proved them wrong by eating _13_ bowls of ramen.

It was very fortunate for Haruno Emiko that ramen wafs cheap… but still! Sixty-seven dollars was RIDICULOUS!! For _ramen_ nonetheless! Where the hell did that kid put it all? In some hidden pocket inside his body? She was surprised that he wasn't sick or hadn't started vomiting from _gorging_ himself on ramen.

In fact, he seemed quite content and had a silly grin stretched across his face as they left the (ramen) bar. The chef waved to them as they left, a couple of tears running down his face. Never before had he had such a great customer. The boy was kind, amusing, and had the appetite of a bull elephant. That wonderful child had not only brought him more money than any other customer in one sitting, he had also been so nice and would compliment about every aspect of the ramen, from the broth to how the noodles were prepared… if only there were more people like that in the world.

"Ayame!" the old man shouted, yelling to his daughter in the kitchen.

"Yeah, dad?" the young woman asked, poking her head out from behind the kitchen door. What could her father want?

"When I let you start dating, I want you to find a man like that, and marry him the first chance you get." He said, his face so serious that Ayame almost laughed. Never before had her father looked so stoic!

"Dad, you do know that I'm twenty-two, right? And that I've already dated, like, fourteen guys. Hell dad, I've had se…"

"Don't you dare say the 'S' word!" He exclaimed, slapping his hand over his daughter's mouth. His little girl couldn't have lost her innocence, not willingly! She was probably forced upon by one of those piggish bastards that she calls "male friends"! He would find and kill the little bastard!

"Dad! You're making a scene, and we still have customers! Let go of me!"

--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k--

Sakura had searched through three stores already, and she still couldn't find that stupid blond idiot! Didn't that idiot know what "Stay close by" meant? It means to stay near by, damn it! Not "Go ahead and wander off"!! When she found him she was going to beat him to a bloody pulp!

And how hard is it to spot a blond head in a crowded mall? Considerably easy, actually, because most of the people around this part of town had brown or black hair. Occasionally there would be the wacky hair colors, both natural and not, such as Sakura's that would pop up here and there, but blond was still fairly unique, especially hair like Ino, Naruto, and Tetsu's.

Suddenly, she spotted the familiar head of said blond, bobbing through the crowds like a little kid on a sugar buzz. The darker part of her, of which she dubbed "The Real Thoughts of Sakura", or "Inner Sakura", for short, wanted to crack its knuckles and cackle in sadistic glee as it contemplated the pains of which it would cause, while the light side of the force was thinking similar thoughts, albeit a little less violent.

She began pushing through the crowd, much to displeasure of some at being rudely shoved to the side. However, when they attempted to confront the pink haired girl, they were met by a flaming glare that screamed, "Get the hell outta my way! I'm coming through!" and were abruptly ignored in favor of moving forward towards a bouncing figure in the near distance.

Sakura noticed that the blond's bouncing had stopped, and that the crowd had halted around where she last saw him bob up. As she started forcing herself through, she noticed that a few people were attempting to peer over the others, either in annoyance or curiosity wondering what had caused the hold up. Some were looking enviously at the taller people of the crowd.

Suddenly, two familiar voices drifted over the crowd.

"Get out of my face, dobe. I don't know who you are, and I don't know what you want."

"Come on Itachi! You know me! You've talked to me before, when they let me out to stretch! You were my guard, remember?"

"What did you just call me?" Sakura could definitely recognize Naruto's voice and tones (Which was none by the way. She found out that he had very little volume control when he got excited), but that other one sounded exactly like…

"And what happened to your eyes? They're normal!"

She finally made it to the front of the crowd, and saw something she had not expected. Oh, yeah, she did expect Naruto to be there, causing trouble, but what she didn't expect was…

"What do you know of my brother."

Uchiha Sasuke.

--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k--

"See this bad boy? Fires off 5 rounds a second, with a 60 round clip! She can tear up steel plating like it's nothing when she's spittin' AP rounds." The soldier said, holding up his favorite assault rifle. It was almost new; its first time being used was yesterday after that breakout.

"Oh yeah, that shits got nuthin' on my baby. She fires two rounds a second, sure, but my bitch can punch an .80 cal shell through a 4 foot thick wall without no '_AP_'."

"Yeah, but she's one fat little fucker. I thought you liked the lighter girls."

"Hell no! Guns are like trucks, man! The bigger they are, the better!"

"Yeah, but the bigger they are, the less of them you can carry. I pack at _least_ two Desert Eagles on me, and a shitload of ammo along with it. You hold on to a fourteen pound hunk of steel _and_ you gotta carry the rest of your shit in a backpack."

"Oh yeah, fuckhead? Well how about…"

"Could you guys tone it down? And watch the language, I'm pretty sure my ears have fried off by now." A cool voice interrupted, drawing their attention to the man in the corner of the cramped bunkroom. He appeared to be in about his mid-twenties to early thirties, but his crazily angled hair was already a solid gray/silver. He wore an eye-patch over his left eye, and wore a facemask over the bottom portion of his face. He had a carved wooden dog-mask hanging above his bed. He lay on his back as he read a little orange book.

"Hey… I know you!" The second soldier said, his voice filled with recognition. "You're that hand-to-hand specialist, Kakashi! They say you can move faster than most guys can draw their guns."

"Yeah fucking right! That's not even fucking possible!" Scoffed the first soldier disbelievingly, crossing his arms.

"Oh yeah? Well I never thought no fucking kid could turn into a monster and fucking blow the fuck outta a hallway!" The other replied, jabbing the first in the chest with his finger.

"Yeah, well, those scientists are really fucked up. He's probably got some cybernetic sci-fi shit shoved up his ass."

"As opposed to the dick you have in yours?"

"Shut up, faggot!"

"I thought I told you to quit it with the language, and I don't appreciate the faggot jab." Kakashi said, shifting his view from the book to the other two occupants in the room.

"Why, dog-bitch. You one?" The first one said snidely, making a reference to the mask above Kakashi.

"Actually, I am." The other two looked at the silver-haired man in shock. The first soldier cracked up in mean, abusive laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHA!! Probably got some other faggot lover on the outside, waitin' like some pussy for you to come home, so you can have gay faggot butt sex."

"Well, my love's one sided. But you really don't have to use the word 'faggot' so much. It's getting kind of irritating."

"Awww, dog-bitch's bitch is chasin' after some other pussy-ass?"

"No, actually. He's straight."

"HAHAHA! That's even worse, shit-dick! You can't even get nothin', cause you in love wit' a straight man!"

"No, honestly, stop with the derogatory phrases. They're beginning to piss me off."

"Oh, whatcha gonna do, fudge-packer. Gonna turn into a daisy-pickin' Hulk?"

"That one just didn't make sense."

"Probably stayed up all night fingerin' yourself to the image of your straight bitch. Maybe that's why you didn't help out last night."

Now Kakashi was genuinely confused, not to mention severely irritated. He was sick of the gay jabs, but he had no clue what the other man was talking about when he said "help out last night". What happened? Voicing his question out loud, the other two just stared at him in disbelief.

"You mean you didn't hear anything? None of the explosions or gunfire?" The second soldier asked, finally saying something. The silver haired man just shook his head negatively.

"I'm a pretty deep sleeper. And I haven't left this room all day, except to go to the bathroom." He said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. The other two could hardly believe what they were hearing.

"So you didn't hear anything? No gun fire, no big kabooms, no nothin'?" The first soldier inquired, staring at the silver haired man quizzically.

"No, nothing. I just slept peacefully all night."

"You didn't even feel the quake caused by that freak when it torched Hallway 13-6?"

"Oh! That's what that was! I had been wondering what made my bed move a few inches off!" Once again, the other two were reduced to shock and disbelief. Not only was this man supposed to be Kakashi, a legendary martial arts specialist, but he was also gay and slept like the dead.

"Well, if you had been awake, maybe Tango wouldn't have been wiped, and that scientist wouldn't have died!" The second soldier was angry now. Here, this supposedly 'legendary soldier', slept through something he could've helped prevent, and maybe have saved the lives of his comrades and that scientist.

"Wait… you said one of the scientists was killed. Who was it?" Kakashi had known something was missing from the mess hall when he passed it earlier that day. Just about everyone in there sat at the same place, at the same time, every day, and Kakashi had memorized the patterns. However, he had noticed the lack of a certain pony-tailed scientist. Namely…

"The fucker's name was Iruka." Kakashi physically felt as if his heart was breaking into little pieces. _No…_

"Said he was tryin' to protect that fucking _thing_, and it killed him. Fucker probably deserved it…" The first soldier was suddenly slammed backwards into the wall, a manic glint appearing in the single visible eye of the man gripping his neck.

"Don't you _ever_ fucking say anything like that about Iruka! He hasn't done anything to deserve death, period!" Kakashi shouted in the man's face, emphasizing each word with a slight shake and slap against the wall.

"Oh, so that the one you pinin' after? That bitch was trying to save that stupid fucking monster, and it had already offed one platoon. That beast killed him, and I say the fucker deserved… ACK!" The man didn't get to finish his sentence as the hand closed around his neck, squeezing tightly. He swore he felt something his neck pop.

The second soldier, wondering whose side he should be on, finally took action. Yanking and tugging at Kakashi's iron grip on his friends trachea was doing little good, however, as he watched his friend's face darken and veins begin to pop up. The man's eyes were soon rolling back and bugging out as darkness finally came over him.

Tossing him to the side, Kakashi stood up, staring at the man as if realizing what he'd just done. Shrugging, Kakashi kicked the downed man as he began walking towards his side of the room, grabbing his mask and walking out of the door. The second soldier spoke up as he passed.

"Is he alright?" He asked, watching Kakashi as he turned the knob. The man glanced back, pulling his mask on as the door opened.

"He'll be fine, just a little unconscious. He'll wake up in an hour or two. But I'd get him down to the infirmary if I were you, I think I did something to his spine." He said coolly, stepping outside the room.

"Alright, but where are you going?" The soldier asked, bending down to try and lift his fool of a friend (Dammit, the fat-ass was heavy!). Kakashi stared at him through the eye-slits of the mask. The soldier could see a slight gleam coming from where the left eye was, and he suddenly noticed that Kakashi had taken off his eye patch, and was holding it in his hands. A murderous aura had encased the mysterious man, saying one word before he walked away.

"Hunting."

--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k--

Quick recap of the fight…

First of all, Naruto called him Itachi, whoever that was. Apparently (according to Sasuke's words) he was Sasuke's older brother.

Second of all, Sasuke demanded that Naruto tell him all that he knew, which, in Sakura's humble opinion, wasn't all that much.

After that, things had gotten a little violent and went something like this…

"Waah!" Naruto shouted in surprise, leaning back away from the punch aimed at his jaw. This was _totally_ not Itachi! Itachi said he would never hurt him without due cause, and this most definitely was _not_ due cause! Naruto paused suddenly, letting his mind wander along that train of thought… in all technicality, Itachi would have had due cause, since Naruto had escaped from the lab, and hurt all those people in the process. So if this was Itachi, he maybe would begin attacking him… but this person had called Itachi his 'older brother', so…

Naruto was knocked from his thoughts, literally, as a fierce right hook to his cheek knocked him over and into one of the many concrete planters in the mall, and unfortunately one of the few with edges not worn down by sneaky skater punks, small children walking along the edge, and the sitting upon by various other people in the entire structure.

Naruto stood up shakily, a considerable gash on the right side of his face and a bruise forming on his left where the Sasuke's fist had struck him.

"Dammit, that hurt!" Naruto shouted angrily at the raven-haired teenager, his eyes flashing a quick red. Sasuke took note of this, wondering what it was, and unconsciously took a step backwards.

"Then tell me what you know about my brother!" Sasuke yelled back, recovering his lost step, angry with himself for taking that step. Uchihas' never retreated! He mentally prepared his next move, taking note of the crowd and the placement of various objects.

"What have you done to deserve it, teme?! All you've done is yell at me and punch me!" Naruto retorted, his shoulders tensing in anger. Stupid jerk!

Sasuke began to take a step to the left, preparing to plant it and knock the blond's head off with a powerful kick to the side of his face from his right leg. Just as the leg began to swing, nearly reaching the stupid dobe's head, Naruto swung his left arm up in defense, stepping into the kick, and punching Sasuke straight into a wall, his normally blue eyes an enraged crimson, his pupils slit and cat-like. The raven had whacked his head against the brick, and was now stumbling dizzily about, attempting to focus on one of the five red-eyed blonds that now stood in front of him.

Sasuke took a drunken swing at one of the ones on his left, only for him to realize that it wasn't there as his arm appeared to pass right through it. But the center one grabbed his arm, and suddenly Sasuke's vision focused, realizing that the blond had not somehow cloned himself, and was standing, instead, right in front of him. Then he didn't see anything as Naruto delivered a powerful head-butt to teenager's skull, knocking him unconscious.

And that's when the Security Guards had come in, grabbing the dark-haired teen and pulling him away from the still-angry Naruto, who was just beginning to calm down. It was then, also, that he realized that a large amount of people were standing in a circle around them, whispering and talking, occasionally gesturing to the teme's unconscious form. He didn't understand what all the fuss was about… all he did was teach the stupid bastard a lesson. Don't mess with Uzumaki Naruto! Yeah… that's it. He was the best. Period. End o' story. Ohhhhh yeahhhh…

"Naruto! You IDIOT!! Do you realize what you've even just done?!" A voice that, in the short time that he had known it, he had learned to fear, erupted from behind him as Sakura punched him the head, knocking him flat on the ground. She grabbed him by the foot, and began to drag him through the crowd.

"You stupid idiot! I leave you alone for one second, and you and you're socially awkward self wander off and start a fight! With Uchiha Sasuke nonetheless! GRARGH! You have no idea how worried Mom was! We were searching all over…" She ranted as she finally let him stand, grabbed him roughly by the shoulders, and shoved him the rest of the way back towards where she and her mother had agreed to meet.

Sasuke had come-to shortly after Sakura had begun to drag Naruto through the crowd.

The mall security guards, incompetent Rent-a-Cops that they were, had let the dobe wander off with that pink haired woman. In fact, after that stupid blond had left, the guard holding him made sure that Sasuke could stand on his feet independently, and then they left.

But there was something off about that blond… When he had left, there was still plenty of drying blood on the right side of his idiotic face… but… he could've sworn that…

The wound had healed.

And he knew about that bastard Itachi, and had even (somehow) confused himself with Itachi when the blond confronted him. Sasuke had never told anyone about Itachi, so how had that blond (of whom Sasuke was quite sure he had never met) known about one of his darker secrets.

He had to find out who this blond dobe was.

--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k--

Sakura was still ranting as they met up with Sakura's mother, who was calmly sitting on a bench by a "Lime Octavius" stall. Noticing her pink-haired daughter, she stood up with a smile on her face, brushing off a couple of wrinkles on her shirt.

"So you found him, did you? I hope he didn't wander too far off." Emiko said, seeing Sakura's death-grip on Naruto's shoulders as she pushed him along. Naruto was babbling a bunch of apologies and explanations as they approached, many of them not making sense to Emiko as they got closer.

"Not at all. Just over by the other side of the mall, _picking fights with people he shouldn't have!_" Sakura said angrily, preventing another escape attempt by Naruto by squeezing the nerves in his shoulders, making him squirm in pain.

"Oh my! I hope everything is all right! Did you get hurt?" Emiko asked Naruto, suddenly in front of him and inspecting him all over for injury. Noticing the blood on his face, she locked on to that, taking out a handkerchief in her pocket, wetting the cloth with her tongue, and scrubbed at it, expecting to see some form of cut or scab forming underneath the dried flakes.

What she saw was… nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing but clean, pristine skin. Albeit whisker-marked and saliva covered skin, courtesy of Emiko's rag, but undamaged skin nonetheless.

"Naruto… where did all this blood come from? What happened?" Emiko questioned the blond, concerned. Why was the right side of his face covered in blood, when there wasn't a mark on him?

"What? Oh, that! It was nothing, just some stupid teme that's the brother of a guy I know. Stupid teme hit me and knocked me into the cement block plant thingy! That hurt! And then I got up and hit him and Whack! Kapow! I knocked him down and out!… and then Sakura-chan came and got me and yelled at me and brought me here!" Naruto said cheerfully, ignoring the increasingly concerned look he was receiving from Emiko.

"But where's the blood from? Did you get a cut? Where is it?" She said. Nothing in his explanation could account for the blood!

"Oh… I think I had a cut or something. Why?"

"Because there shouldn't be that much blood from 'a cut or something'! How big was it?" Naruto held his fingers apart, moving the tips until they appeared to be the correct distance apart.

"About this long."

"Honey! That's more than a cut! Where is it? Did it get in your hair? Is that why I can't find it on your face?" She said, staring at the three-inch space between his fingers. That wasn't a cut! That was a considerable gash! How could he just brush something off like that?

"Oh… it must've healed already."

Sakura and Emiko stopped and stared at him in awe and confusion. That just wasn't possible…

"Naruto, this isn't the time or the place for this right now. But when we get home, you have some serious explaining to do."

--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k--

Welll… let's just say that Sakura thought Naruto looked good in tight pants. Like, _really_ tight pants. Like "Oh my god, his ass is so grabbable and sexy!" tight pants.

But there was very little tight pants-edness. Naruto didn't like them. At all. Said it constricted way too much movement. It also looked like the pants were constricting something else, but Sakura would never tell Naruto that.

After all of the chaos of earlier that afternoon, Tetsu's drama about his sister, and Naruto's fight with Sasuke, it had actually been rather relaxing to be able to wander the malls with Naruto and her mother. They had purchased Naruto a few sets of clothing, and a couple of pairs of pants to go along with them, and had just passed a small candy machine, which, to much begging on Naruto's part, they had just used. So all in all (not including the ramen), they had spent roughly a hundred dollars, and Mrs. Haruno was quite pleased that Naruto appeared to be quite the keen bargain-shopper.

"Who taught you how to bargain shop, Naruto-san?" Emiko asked, looking over at the boy who was preoccupied with trying to unwrap a sucker he had gotten. After an annoyed huff and a tearing of paper, Naruto shoved the sucker into his mouth, a content grin plastered across his face.

"What do you mean Mrs. Haruno-san?" Naruto said, talking around the hard candy.

"Who taught you how to shop for all of the cheap stuff, instead of buying all of the expensive stuff like I do, is what she means." Sakura interrupted before her mother could answer, much to the elder Haruno's irritation.

"Oh! Iruka-sensei taught me to do that! The few times I was let out, he would take me to places and stores and buy me stuff! He would get in this serious voice and say stuff like 'If ever you are allowed out by yourself, and you go shopping, always remember to find the deals. Chances are the cheap pants are just as good as the expensive ones'. And then sometimes he'd add stuff like 'With how you treat clothes, it wouldn't matter anyway. So save yourself a few bucks and go for the ones in the bargain bin!' ... or something like that." When Naruto finished his explanation, he seemed to pull into himself, a sad smile on his face as he added a couple more sentences.

"… I would always reply… I would always come back with 'They won't let me go! You're gonna always be with me, so I don't have to worry about money!'…" Within moments, the hyper and happy Naruto had withdrawn into a sad and depressed person that Sakura had only seen after she met him in the alley… when he had been crying into that one guy's body…

"Who is Iruka-sensei, Naruto-san? What do you mean by 'let out'? You weren't mistreated were you?" Emiko asked, her motherly senses kicking in again. Someone had apparently caused some sort of suffering to Naruto, and though she had only known the boy for a few hours, she had grown attached to the energetic young man. Now that he had pulled a complete turnaround in personality, it made her worried.

"Iruka-sensei is… _was_… my dad." Naruto said sadly, looking mournfully towards the ground, remembering the kind man's kind words and gentle voice. " I was… I was raised in a special facility…" Naruto paused, a look passing across his face, as if suddenly realizing where they were. "I'm sorry Mrs. Harfuno, but can we save this conversation for later? I don't really wanna talk about it here…" and suddenly the other Naruto appeared, smiling and happy, seemingly oblivious to the world around him. But the smile didn't quite reach his eyes, and the smile appeared strained.

Emiko and Sakura were taken aback by this sudden mood change, catching the pleading look in Naruto's eyes. A look passed between the two, one of those silent mother-daughter as-close-to-telepathy-as-you-can-get moments, and then the elder Haruno nodded to Naruto, her face serious.

"Of course, Naruto, but you _will_ tell us when we get home." She said, looking into Naruto's eyes. Naruto just gave his foxy grin and nodded.

They all stood there for a moment, the mall crowds flowing around them as Sakura and Emiko watched Naruto, and Naruto smiled at the two Haruno women. However, the moment didn't last long as Naruto's attention changed to something else, that something else being the electronics store just down the hall.

"Ooooh! Hey! Let's go there!" Naruto said as he began to walk, not even waiting for the other two to respond or follow. Emiko groaned and Sakura slapped her forehead.

Emiko figured that they would be in for a long night as she and her pink-haired daughter began to follow the blond, especially since the boy, though a great shopper for bargains and deals, also happened to be attracted to trinkets and toys, and anything else, really, that happened to catch his eye. That, coupled with whatever troubles were bugging the poor blond, was going to probably end up keeping her awake much longer than she wanted to be.

Ah well, she had plenty of coffee. She was prepared for just about anything tonight.

Alrighty… so the chapters are going to probably be around 5000 words from now on… this chapter's just short of that by 514 or so.

**So, anyway, this was a bitch to type… personally, I don't like the ending of this chappie, but I'll live.**

**Either way, with the summer holiday approaching, I should be able to start posting updates a little bit more often. But please remember that I am not bound by any schedule to post, and will post as much or as often as I feel like it. When I feel like it usually is whenever I finish the chapter.**

**Sorry to sound grouchy on the last bit…**

**Always remember! I appreciate feedback, in any shape or form. I truly would appreciate it if you would leave a review longer than 10 words, or even better, 20.**

**Anyway…**

**Much love and appreciation,**

**ChickenDeNoodleyNoodle the Third**

**P.S: I will also attempt to reply to reviews this time around! I'm just usually so busy with everything else in my life, I can't get around to it!**


	4. Chapter 4: Enter Kakashi

**Hell yes, bitches! It be done!**

**Now be ready for some kick ass awesomeness! Intensity to the extreme!**

**Yosh!**

**Time of Completion: Sunday, 15 February, 5:03AM Eastern Standard Time  
Number of Words (in text): 4,610  
Sheer Amount of Awesome: A Lot**

**... Read and Review, please?**

* * *

"Report!" the deep voice rumbled from the dark end of the gargantuan meeting table, multi-hued eyes flashing in the dark as the words seemed to encompass the room with its severity. 5 holograms, each a 9-inch off-color, blue-and-pink-tinted image of the person being projected, fizzled into existence onto the display pads in front of him.

"Kakuzu and Hidan, reporting in, sir. We've finally settled down the occupants of the other cells. XIV and 8 almost escaped sir, and we had some trouble from the SHUKAKU project, but were finally able to sedate him. It seems he is reacting to the disappearance of KYUUBI." The man known as Kakuzu said, only his dark eyes visible over his high collar and under his skullcap, his face completely covered. His silver-haired partner stood next to him, his static image flickering as he nodding grimly.

"Damn sand bastard almost killed his handlers! When he discovered that the fucking fox had buggered outta here, he went berserk. Apparently the stupid fucking tanuki developed an attachment to the fiery fuck, if his shrieks were any indication. I wouldn't call it friendship, but the fox has generated some affect on him, and was, if my observations are correct, a crucial influence on the fucking sand kid's sanity." Hidan stated, holding on to his elbow and stretching his back every once in a while as he spoke. "The stupid bastard knocked me into a wall with one of his fucking tails when me and Kakuzu were called in. According to those dumbass scientists, when the damn SHUKAKU kid discovered that KYUUBI wasn't in the building, he went batshit insane. Started transforming or whatever, and that's when we were buzzed. Either way, the fucker's strong."

"Could you have put it any less artistically?" the blond on the far right said, glaring at the rather vulgar silver-haired man.

"Fuck off, Deidara! This isn't your report!" Hidan retorted, returning the blonde's glare as he folded his arms over his chest. The silver-haired man winced, grabbing his elbow again, his face contorted in pain as he realized his stupidity in the action.

"Ha, you stupid moro-!"

"Silence, Deidara. Your report will be next." The man interrupted, his rumbling voice threatening. The blond shut up immediately, his image flickering. He did not want to anger his boss, that was for sure! "Continue, if you have any thing else to report." The man said, turning his attention back to the images of Hidan and Kakuzu.

"Nothing really, sir. We only experienced some minor injuries, though one of the scientists was hospitalized due to several broken bones. Otherwise, nothing else of great importance." Kakuzu answered before Hidan could respond, knowing that his partner would end up saying something stupid and start fighting with Deidara, as was usual during meetings like this. Just something about the two being in the same room caused them to bicker.

"Good. Deidara, _now_ you may report."

"Thank you, Leader-sama. I've reached the final testing stages of the prototype I had been telling you about. I've just sent you the details on what it does via e-mail, if you wish to see them. Besides that, we've also created several prototype models of offensive and assassination equipment that you should inspect before we continue with them. One of them happens to be of interest to several of our martial artists and hand-to-hand combat specialists."

"I'm assuming by '_hand-to-hand_' specialists, you're referring to Kakashi?"

"Yes, sir, he's the main one interested in this particular project. He even requested to be allowed a field test of this piece of equipment before we'd even finished the prototype. And since I worked on it during one of my breaks from my main project, I believe it's quite artistic in its nature and execution. I sent the specs of this project in another email, along with a formal request by Kakashi, and the other models, too."

"I'll consider it. Sasori?" The fair-skinned red-head was snapped out of his musings by the Leader's voice, his hologram turning its head up to face the enshrouded man.

"Nothing new here, Leader-sama. Deidara's basically covered everything currently going on in the Research & Development department." Sasori droned, his voice monotonous and un-interested as he drummed his fingers against his leg.

"Zetsu? Any reports from your spy networks?"

Even though his image was the same height as the other holograms, the strange man still appeared tall. His face and, underneath his clothing, the rest of his body, were split into two 'halves'. Due to a failed experiment involving attempts to enhance both the human mind and the body, his skin had developed a strange pigmentation. The right side of his body turned black, and the left side became white. Not just black and white as in racial skin color, but as in his body developed _pure black_ and _pure white_ pigments in his skin. Not to mention his eye-color. The eye on the right side was now a solid yellow-orange, almost gold in color, cornea, iris, pupil and all. The opposite eye instead was only the yellow-orange in the iris and pupil. On top of his strange body changes, he also developed moderate psychosis, along with the worst case of split-personality disorder the psychologists who had tried to help him had ever seen, at least that's what they believe it was. His brain had actually _partitioned_ into two different minds, two different people, and so instead of his mind creating a second 'personality', per se, he had actually become two completely different people inside the same body. Zetsu referred to this other person as his 'brother'.

"Yes, sir. The governments of several neighboring countries would like to make some deals with you."

"_The snake-fiend is also on the move. You should deal with him before it's too late._"

"Noted. I shall arrange the meetings," the Leader paused for a moment, staring at the two spaces where the images of a certain Uchiha and Hoshigake were supposed to be waiting. "Why hasn't Itachi reported in?"

"Last I knew, he's still trying to locate that damn fox kid. Has been since he broke out last night. Futile, if you ask me. Kid's probably miles away by now…"

"Do not presume that you know what I do, nor the futility of my missions," Itachi's words crackled through, his voice coming from the place where he should have been standing.

"Forgive me Leader-sama, it took me some time to find a suitable connection that would allow me to contact you. Kisame and I are currently unable to enter a proper projection room, so I will be speaking for him at the moment, as well as myself."

"Forgiven, if you are able to give a noteworthy report. Continue."

"Unfortunately, I have lost my quarry…" This statement was met by several disgruntled 'hmph!'s and a triumphant muttering of 'Told you so!' from Hidan. "… at the moment. However, I do have several leads as to where the subject is staying, and will be inspecting those as soon as possible."

"Negative. You will return to Headquarters immediately. I am going to let 5776 be right now." The Leader said, leaning in a bit towards the projections, his hands clasped under his chin. The light coming from the holograms reflected off of the blue and yellow of his eyes, giving them a sinister gleam.

" We have other things to oversee right now that are far more important than some missing weapon."

-_-_-S-e-c-t-i-o-n-_-B-r-e-a-k-_-_-

Besides it beginning to rain, the ride from the mall was so far uneventful. The roads were clear of traffic, and the shadowed city streets were empty of the daytime bustle. Most of the ride had been spent in silence as the car's occupants sat in thought. Well, the two capable of silent thought, anyway. Naruto was too busy fidgeting as he chewed on the end of a used sucker stick

In the end, they had bought a decent amount of clothes, enough so that Naruto would have enough shirts for two weeks, and just about as many pants, if he wore a couple of pairs an extra day or so. Naruto was still baffled, confused, and perplexed as to why Mrs. Haruno was doing all of this. According to what little he knew about people outside of the lab, coupled with what the others, like the scientists, security personnel, and the occasional few others who would pass through the Akatsuki facility, would say or he chanced to overhear, most people would rather cut off their own arms instead of being charitable. It had been to his understanding that though there were nice people out there, a majority of the world was nothing but greedy, selfish back-stabbers, who would, instead of helping others in need, laugh in disdain and look down their noses at others, forwarding their own selfish goals without care as to the expense of others. That humanity was nothing but a bunch of hateful greedy apes, carelessly destroying the world so that they could earn wealth.

But Sakura and Emiko had blown those theories right out of the water. Everything that the two had said and done, was a contradiction to what he had learned. With the exception of Iruka, nobody had really cared as to Naruto's well being. There were a rare few other scientists who treated him as a patient, but none who truly _cared_ about him. Not like Iruka had. It had taken years to develop the bonds with Iruka that he had had, that feeling that no matter what time of day it was, if Naruto ever needed Iruka, whether it be because Naruto needed help, was just lonely, or even if he had a nightmare, Iruka would come to his little room and talk with him, keep him company, listen to him, just because the man _cared_. Not because he had to, because he wanted to. All the other doctors and scientists would ignore him or just go get Iruka. The security guards didn't talk to him, because they were all afraid of him. Afraid of what he could do.

Then along comes Sakura, who, by the kindness of her own heart, decides to help him, and befriended him in the space of minutes. Her mother comes along, and not only offers him a home to live in, but clothing and food as well. Emiko and Sakura had, within the hours since they had met, been kinder to him than almost all the years he had known Iruka combined.

Tears welled up in Naruto's eyes at the thought of this. Nobody had ever been this nice. Nobody had ever cared about him, or even wanted to care about him. Nobody but Iruka, but he couldn't do that anymore. He couldn't care about Naruto anymore. The tears began to spill down Naruto's face as he silently began to cry, biting his sucker stick in half as he tried not to make any noise.

"Naruto? Naruto, are you okay? What's the matter?" He could hear the motherly concern in Emiko's voice as the tears began to flow even more. Naruto looked up, seeing Sakura turned around to face him, and Emiko's concerned eyes looking at him through the rearview mirror.

"Nothing... it's... nothing," he mumbled, trying to prevent any sobs from getting through his clenched teeth.

"Don't lie to me! I'm a mother, I know these things! Now tell me what's the mat... what does that idiot think he's doing?!" The change in tone made Naruto look up, wondering what she was shouting about. To his surprise, there was a man, looking at the ground, standing in the middle of the road barely twenty feet in front of them. Naruto lurched forward against the seatbelt as the minivan screeched to a halt, stopping mere inches from the strange man. They all sat and stared at him through the windshield, the view slowly becoming obscured by tiny raindrops, and then restored back to clarity by the wipers.

Then he looked up, revealing a white mask with a glowing red eye as electricity arced out of his hand.

-_-_-S-e-c-t-i-o-n-_-B-r-e-a-k-_-_-

Deidara stomped into the Research & Development lab, brewing with rage as he fisted the note in his hands.

"Who the hell authorized the removal of the _Chidori_ Hand-to-hand Combat unit?" He yelled, the bustling room coming to halt. The half-dozen night-shift researchers stared blankly at their department head in confusion.

"Didn't... didn't you, sir?" came a timid response from one of the scientists. The other five quickly moved away from him, knowing better than to get in the way if Deidara went into one of his rages, which usually resulted in debris and visits to the hospital.

"What the fuck? No. Who the hell told you that?!" The blond took two steps toward him, shaking in anger.

"Ummm... well, sir, Kakashi came in here, and it had your signature..."

"_What_ had my signature?!" Deidara, who was not very tall, somehow managed to loom over the cowering researcher.

"The request form! The one stapled to the note in your hand!" Deidara paused, turning his angry gaze from the quivering man in front of him to the crumpled paper in his hand. The dull gray of a staple caught his eye, and he began to unfold the mess, unwrapping the second sheet of paper that he hadn't noticed from the confines of the first. The blond gave it a quick once over, and then clenched his fist again, crumpling the paper for a second time.

"Where the hell did he get this! I didn't sign any fucking approval forms!"

"He said you had green-lighted it, and that he was authorized to give it a field test! He told us that if we didn't give it to him quick for testing, you were going to get angry!"

"I'm angry right now!"

"We tried to tell him it wasn't quite ready, and there were still a couple of bugs we needed to fix!" One of the others stepped in, shifting the focus of Deidara's rage away from the other scientist.

"Like what?! I almost had the _Chidori_ to artistic perfection! Are you saying there was something wrong with my design?!"

"Not at all! It's just that we were never able to mute the chirruping that the generator made, so it still has little-to-no stealth value, and also..."

"What else?! What else was wrong with my art?!"

"Well... we were never able to get it to..."

"Never able to get it to what?!"

"Well, sir... we couldn't get it to cap off. There's no charge limit. If it overloads, it could spontaneously discharge, or worse..."

"'Or worse' what?"

"It could electrocute the user, or even explode."

-_-_-S-e-c-t-i-o-n-_-B-r-e-a-k-_-_-

Sakura's head hurt.

She opened her eyes, her vision obscured by a pink blur. Brushing her hair out of the way, she sat up, realizing that she had been slumped over her seatbelt. She quickly fell back forward into the belt, her head throbbing. Her back was spasming at random intervals, and her arm would twitch every other second or so. There was a strange smell of singed rubber and hair, and through the windshield she could see smoke leaking out of a hole in the hood of the van.

She tried to remember what had just happened... she could remember a strange man, and jerking forward as her mom slammed the breaks. Then her memory became fuzzy... she recalled Naruto yelling "Outta the car!" and then... well... her memory was blank from there on. Did she pass out?

Something smashed into the side of the minivan, and suddenly it all came back to her. The strange man. The weird dog-like mask. The red eye. The lightning shooting out of his hand as he smashed his palm into the front of the car... and then the car sinking and purple and blue arcs of electricity dancing throughout the car. After that, it was darkness.

Sakura was brought back to attention as Naruto crashed into the minivan's hood, bouncing off and rolling onto the pavement in front of the bumper. There was a large scorch mark smoldering on his chest, visible through the singed hole in his baggy shirt.

"Naruto!" She screamed, struggling against the seatbelt. She tried to release it from the clasp, but the buckle mechanism had melted to the seat, and was still hot. She pulled back her hand, shaking and blowing on it as a few strands of molten plastic stretched from the seat to her palm.

A black blur out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, as she looked up just in time to see the man barrel into a staggering Naruto, smashing him back into the ground, his fist glowing an electric blue as it smashed into the asphalt next to Naruto's head.

-_-_-_-

Naruto twitched as a stray spark jumped from the gloved fist next to his face onto his head. He could hardly focus upon the emotionless mask above him, his thoughts and vision spinning from the current that had been forced into his body. The masked man was silent, and as far as Naruto could tell, was just staring at him. Or at least he thought the man was staring at him... he couldn't tell much from the one eye visible... though it looked kind of familiar... there were two people he knew of with spinning red eyes, and only one of them he knew personally. This wasn't Itachi... he had two of them. So this guy had to be... well, he couldn't remember his name, but it was definitely not Itachi. How weird would that be? Two Itachi's, both with funny eyes...

Naruto's rambling thoughts were interrupted as the wooden mask smashed into his forehead, making him black out for a moment. In that short amount of time, the strange man leapt off his chest, backing up once he landed, putting a ten foot gap between them. Naruto stumbled back up, trying to reorient himself and gain balance, his eyes trying to focus on his assailant. The world refused to stop spinning for a moment to allow him a chance to stand upright! Naruto paused, and the world steadied for a moment as the stranger's voice rang out, echoing between the buildings.

"Y'know... this's been easier than I thought it'd be. I would've expected you to put up a better fight than this." The voice was strangely familiar... he couldn't quite place it, but Naruto knew he knew that voice from somewhere... However, there was one thing for sure that Naruto had picked up from that statement. The jerk thought he was weak!

"Oh yeah, bastard! You haven't seen anything yet!" With a feral grin, Naruto crouched, preparing to leap right across the street and into the masked jerkoff. He pushed off... and fell flat on his face. His balance was still off.

-_-_-_-

Kakashi stared at the idiot blond, who was now laying face-down in a small puddle. He was trying to take his revenge on _this_? That big-mouthed idiot at the barracks would've been tougher... even after he had already beaten the stuffing out of him. He stood there nonchalantly as the blond Project began to wobble back to his feet again, to Kakashi's great amusement.

The hand-to-hand specialist heard a muffled sound off to his left, just noticing the other occupants of the van he had electrocuted. The pink haired girl was trying to struggle out of her seatbelt as she was obviously worrying over the older woman in the driver's seat, who still remained in a slouching, unconscious position in her seat with her forehead resting against the steering wheel. Having not really intended to involve other people in this, he took a step towards the minivan to see if they were alright, completely forgetting about the blond creation behind him...

"Stay away from them!" The next thing Kakashi knew was that he was being suspended above the ground by a pair of very strong and angry arms. Then came the brick wall of a convenience store, which caused much pain, and then the strange feeling of flight as he was thrown through the air. He hit the ground rolling, standing upright and moving as quick as he could before the enraged blond could get to him.

Kakashi could feel wet drops hit his head as the rain began to fall in earnest, which was a cool contrast to the blast of heat at his back. The gray-haired man tried to run, but it was too late when the explosion hit, the fireball searing his back as he was pitched forward. The force of the explosion bounced him off of a wall, and he slammed into the concrete alley between two apartment buildings. Groaning in pain, he turned himself over so that he was face-up. Forcing himself into a sitting position, he looked out the alley, trying to figure out what had made what explode.

There was fire still spewing out of a crack in sidewalk... so a gas pipeline must have exploded. The heat waves and smoke were distorting his line of sight beyond that, but he did notice, with a hint of amusement, that a Konoha Postal Service curbside mailbox had burst, and flaming letters were fluttering about.

The sight beyond that alarmed him, though. The minivan that Naruto had been in was on its side, and the tires were on fire. Killing innocent bystanders would weigh hard enough on his conscience, but innocent bystanders who were killed in a fire that was partially his fault would weigh heavier... Something was coming through the flames. Kakashi focused his attention on that. He couldn't tell what it was though...

The fire parted, and out if the flames stepped Naruto, his clothes burning, but otherwise seeming perfectly fine standing in the middle of the inferno. But... there was something strange about his eyes, and something waving around wildly behind him. The blond's back arched, and he let loose a blood-curdling howl. Kakashi could see lengthened canines inside the Project's mouth, and Kakashi also figured out what was so weird about its eyes. They had changed, and were now a glowing red.

Kakashi went skidding across the ground again, twisting and rolling as he did. The Project was faster than he could react, which wasn't a good thing, considering that his own reactions were at the edge of the human limit... then again, Project 5776 wasn't human.

He realized that his view was unobstructed now. Apparently, he had lost his mask somewhere along the alley floor. He could see it lying, cracked in half, not even five feet from him. Now there was a foot blocking his way. Kakashi felt something tug at his collar, and then he was being lifted up. The silver-haired man felt limp, boneless, as the KYUUBI lifted him up to the blond's eye level, and suddenly he was met by a feral, grinning visage. There was very little humanity left in the look that the Project's cat-like red eyes were giving him.

"**What do you want with me?**" The creature's deep voice sent tremors of fear through Kakashi's body. His arms were limp at his side as he was suspended by the double-fisted grip on the front of his shirt.

"Why..." Kakashi hacked, something coming up with his violent cough. He could feel it on the inside of his facemask, and it definitely didn't taste like phlegm... he really hoped it wasn't blood. He felt a little feeling return to his fingertips. Coughing and breathing heavily, he finished what he had begun to say.

"Why... why did you kill... Iruka?" He could see the confusion in the blond's eyes, but he didn't know what it meant. He was just hoping that the blond was distracted enough to not notice that damn giveaway sound...

"Wh-what? I didn't kill Daddy... why would I kill Da..." Kakashi didn't take time to decipher the statement as he jammed his sparking palm into the blond's chest, interrupting Naruto. The Project yelped, dropping Kakashi to the ground. Kakashi could feel a couple of ribs that he had been hoping were fine break for sure, and it was suddenly harder to breath. He watched through fading eyes as the blond collapsed onto the ground next to him.

Kakashi really hoped that he wasn't going to be fired because of this. He could hardly afford his book collection as it was.

-_-_-_-

Sakura was fairly sure she had a concussion, but she disregarded the pain and the dizziness because the heat was getting worse, and she couldn't get the damn seatbelt off of her mother.

She finally managed to get the elder Haruno out from under the shoulder strap, and was starting to drag her through the shattered windshield. The pinkette almost had her mother free, when she caught a whiff of a familiar smell. The sharp tang of gasoline wafted through the air.

"Shit!" Sakura screamed, scrambling to drag her mother as far from the wrecked vehicle as she could. If enough air got into the tank when the gas ignited... well, the results wouldn't be pretty.

Sakura had dragged Emiko a full ten feet before she collapsed onto the ground, too tired and sore to move any further. And she was quite lucky she fell, because at that moment, molten flame from a burning tire fell into the crack along the top of the gas tank. There was a 'Whoosh' as the air around the bottom of the van was sucked in, making the fire visibly flux inward towards the tank, and then it exploded, catapulting the flaming vehicle over Sakura and her mother's prone bodies, and into the window of the convenience store that Naruto had slammed Kakashi into.

Sakura could feel her consciousness slipping, and tried to hold onto it as long as she could. She finally let it slip away when she heard the distant wail of sirens approaching.

Her last thought was '_I hope Naruto is alright..._'

-_-_-S-e-c-t-i-o-n-_-B-r-e-a-k-_-_-

Kakashi woke up to a familiar smell. It was that annoying smell of that antiseptic clean that only tries to hide, but cannot completely cover up the underlying feel of death, that smell that only Intensive Care Units and emergency wards could achieve. Which meant that he was in a hospital. And since he was in a hospital, and he as far as he knew, still in Konoha, and he was an emergency patient of some sort, that meant that there was a chance that the one doctor he did _not_ want to see was his caretaker.

"What the _fuck_ is he doing here?! Get him outta my ward, and outta my hospital!" ... " I wouldn't care if he's fucking bleeding out the eyes and his insides were melting! I want him OUT! Dammit... I need sake..." The room's lone door slammed open as the busty blonde of his nightmares stormed in, with a timid dark-haired nurse trailed behind her, trying to keep damage caused by the blonde to a minimum. Kakashi gave an awkward wave, his arm spasming and causing him a lot of pain.

"Yo. Long time, no... OUCH! Dammit, Tsunade... that... hur... t..." Kakshi faded back into unconsciousness, a heavy dose of tranquilizer traveling through his system, rocking him slowly back to sleep. Tsunade didn't bother to pull the syringe out of Kakashi's thigh as she left the room, leaving it to the nurse to clean up the mess behind her.

* * *

**Peace out, yo!**

**It be time for this chicken to go to roost!  
-ChickenDeNoodleyNoodle the Third**

**P.S: Happy Valentines Day, everyone!**


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